Community: 5 Hour Sports Offer

In the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Gordon Brown wanted to make sport a part of every child’s day and to build a greater sporting and fitter nation.

In July 2007 the Prime Minister announced a £108m campaign to give every child the opportunity to participate in five hours of sport every week. 

This announcement presents a huge opportunity to build upon the current trend of increasing participation in school sport, stretch the existing target of 2 hours High Quality Physical Education and drive towards developing a World Class Community Sport System.

The overarching aim is to offer 5 hours of sport per week to all pupils aged 5-16 and 3 hours for young people aged 16-19.  In Merseyside, the offer will ideally be made up of 2 hours of High Quality Physical Education and 3 hours of sport beyond the curriculum delivered through a range of school, community and club providers. 

The offer for 16-19 year olds is 3 hours of sport, rather than 5, as unless they are studying sport they would not be accessing Physical Education.

One of the programmes which under pins the 5 Hour Sports Offer is the Sport Unlimited programme designed to attract a different type of young person into regular community sport participation throughout Merseyside.