Abstract
Sports policy in England has led to considerable recent investment in Primary Physical Education (PE) via the ‘PE and Sport Premium’. An outcome of this has been growth in the outsourcing – handing over control of services to external agencies – of PE, including sport coaches from professional football clubs’ community programmes. Despite the growing research on healthy stadia, we know very little about the work performed by community arms of professional clubs in relation to delivering Primary PE. This article discusses the challenges of outsourcing PE to coaches who work for professional football clubs, while offering some evidence related to the employment and development of sports coaches. Given that the evidence of sport coaches’ involvement in Primary PE is limited and that funding and outsourcing it likely to continue England until (at least) 2020, it is important and timely to discuss critically the role of professional football clubs within the current sport policy.
Highlights
Professional football clubs via their community programmes have featured as a key deliverer on the healthy stadia agenda (Parnell and Pringle 2016; Curran et al 2014; Hunt et al 2014)
It seems reasonable to assume that teachers will generally better understand thelearning and developmental needs of children; on the other hand, football and sport coaches are more likely to have an enthusiasm and expertise to teach sporting activities
It does not follow that from the evidence cited above, as a matter of policy, sports coaches ought to replace generalist teachers in the delivery of Primary Physical Education (PE) lessons
Summary
Professional football clubs via their community programmes have featured as a key deliverer on the healthy stadia agenda (Parnell and Pringle 2016; Curran et al 2014; Hunt et al 2014). As part of this work, these community programmes deliver a range of school-based sport provision, including Primary Physical Education (PE). The role of external providers of Primary PE, sports coaches, has come under increasing scrutiny. Many clubs deliver Primary PE services through school-based coaching. This article aims to explore current sport policy and critically discuss how professional football clubs and sport coaches, within the healthy stadia agenda, are delivering Primary PE
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