How do older people feature in the new UK Government sport policy?
Authored by Dr Joe Piggin, Senior lecturer in Sport Policy and Management. Loughborough University.
Recently the UK Government published a new “sport” strategy called Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation. Here I offer some thoughts about what this policy might mean for older people.
From the outset it is important to acknowledge that Sporting Future does not exist in isolation. Public Health England’s policy “Everybody Active Every Day” (2014). A good portion of that policy is given to addressing the unique factors that impinge and constrain activity options for older people. It is clear that in many other policy documents as well, much attention is being devoted to the ageing population.
Individual representations of older adults
Framing plays a powerful role in how we think about groups in society, so it is useful to read various official documents critically. To do this, we need to ask, why did the policy writer describe the group or person the way they did? Is this a fair description? What subtle effects does it have on how we think about these people?
In official documents, individuals are often framed in very positive ways. For example, a press release from April 2016 from the Department for Work and Pensions offers an anecdote about a 71 year old fitness trainer (perhaps the country’s oldest!), jolting our preconceived ideas, unconscious biases and prejudices about what being an older person means in society.
In Sporting Future, older individuals are also visually represented. While the majority of images were of sporty children and elite athletes (as is to be expected in a document about sport), they are shown partaking in communal activities. Four older adults are shown on a day walk in the country side and in another image a group of older men and women compete in lawn bowls.
Of course, it is refreshing to see older adults featuring in the document itself. Unfortunately, we do know that for every 71 year old fitness trainer, or active countryside walker, there are scores of other older people who are absent from public and community life. They are isolated and invisible. Age UK tells us that “over 1 million older people in the UK haven’t spoken to a friend, neighbour or family member for at least a month”.
Population representations of older adults
And this brings us to representations of the entire group in the policy, which is usually done through written descriptions or population statistics.
All policies try to solve a problem, and older people are (inadvertently) framed as part of that problem.
The narrative that frames ageing as a problem is well known, and I think it is continued in the policy itself. All policies try to solve a problem, and older people are (inadvertently) framed as part of the problem. Page 27 mentions that “There are no quick fixes but creating this more active society is not a choice, it is a necessity when we face an ageing population …” Another quote explains that “There are several demographic groups whose engagement in sport and physical activity is well below the national average [including older people]” (p. 10). This is also graphically represented with population data (p. 22)
I don’t think these representations are interpreted as “Old people are lazy”, in the way that obese individuals are framed. There is a general understanding (I think) that with ageing, comes less ability and opportunity to be active.
The role of sport in helping older adults
Engaging in sport as a participant, volunteer, or spectator, can be a wonderful way for older people to be involved in their community. I say “can” because it is abundantly clear that sports clubs are often exclusive. Their unique cultures, rituals and traditions, processes and systems are often quite rigidly and traditional, and club success is often determined by younger athletes. This means that these organisations can inadvertently dissuade older people from taking part.
“We will distribute funding to focus on those people who tend not to take part in sport, including women and girls, disabled people, those in lower socio-economic groups and older people”
And so we return to the central theme of the “Sporting Future” policy. The document points out that “We are redefining what success looks like in sport … by focusing on physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, individual development, social and community development and economic development.”
Older people are framed in the document as being a great potential source of “immense benefit”. The document states that “The benefit of engaging those groups that typically do little or no activity is immense. We will distribute funding to focus on those people who tend not to take part in sport, including women and girls, disabled people, those in lower socio-economic groups and older people” (page 10).
Based on this, there is a good chance that national sports organisations will consider altering their own policies and guidelines to focus (even) more on provision to these older people. But we will wait and see just how this distribution will operate in practice. Some awkward ethical questions arise. Could older adults receive funding that previously went to young athletes in the same organisation? How will these funding decisions be made?
The lobbying power of older adults?
While being “old” often relates to a decrease in sports performance, it does correlate with increasing access to decision making power in sport organisations. Many older people are already in very powerful positions in national sport organisations. Governance boards and committees often consist of a substantial number of older people. It will be very interesting to see just how much change is enacted by national, regional and local sports bodies now they have been steered towards focusing on low participation groups including older people.
How this policy is translated into practice will be fascinating to see. We know that translating ideas into action is difficult. Attempting to alter the behaviour of sports organisations that have long-held and justified reasons for not focusing on older people might be difficult, especially if there is a feeling these other ideas are being forced upon them from external funders.
Sporting Future – A New Strategy for an Active Nation
Last week the UK government published Sporting Future, its new strategy for UK sport. This strategy is a very welcome step forward for the sport sector and the UK as a whole.
Sporting Futurehas defined the market opportunity, clear priorities, supporting measures of success and why these choices are important. Without dictating how it is…
