Angus Sport and Physical Activity Framework Annual Review 2022
2021/22 - Context and Progress
The Angus Sport and Physical Activity Framework was officially launched in July 2021. The framework is guided by the six Active Scotland outcomes with local priorities identified to guide the delivery of the initial implementation. This report provides an update on implementation to date, highlighting key areas of success in year 1, as well as identified priorities for year 2. The report also asks the Community Planning Partnership to note the progress so far, note the refreshed priorities as we move towards year 2, and to support partner organisations to commit time and resource to continue delivery through this work.
Since July 2021 a broad range of physical activity delivery continued to be rolled out across Angus. The continued effect of the Covid-19 pandemic heavily influenced delivery in year 1. Much of the work focussed around the recovery of the sector from periods of lockdown, allowing people and communities to reconnect in club and community settings, supporting young people in schools with a variety of identified needs, using physical activity and sport as the context to achieve wider outcomes, and ensuring communities could access a safe
programme, delivered through a wide range of partners, enabling a wide range of families to access free sports and physical activity sessions through the summer holiday period. A proportion of this work was delivered using a targeted approach, seeking to provide those most in need with additional food provision during the school holiday periods. During the most challenging periods the advent of online/ virtual sessions became a focus with partners such as GOGA (Get out Get Active Tayside) and ANGUSalive providing a range of digitally accessible opportunities.
The period since February 2022 has seen a further recovery of the sector, and this improved significantly with the lifting of national Covid restrictions in April. In school’s, volunteer led extra-curricular activities and school events are re-established, indoor and outdoor community clubs are operating once more and local sport and leisure facilities are fully operational. However, a key priority moving forward must still be to support local people for who have experienced additional barriers to accessing physical activity over the past 2 years, and support local clubs, community organisations, and wider partners, in their continued recovery.
We encourage and enable the inactive to be more active
Year one highlights:
• Implementation of 2021 GOGA (Get Out Get Active) programme, including quiet swim sessions, rock climbing, sessions at local clubs and community trusts, enabling communities to reconnect.
• Health Walk Coordinator recruitment
• Free ANGUSalive memberships for 200 targeted families
• Angus Girls Can programme at Montrose High School, supporting 12 girls to become more active
• Active Schools Food and Fun school holiday programme, with over 2,500 free targeted places accessed.
Year two priorities:
• To embed physical activity into GP assessments
• Angus Council Transformation project, in conjunction with partner organisations: to provide specialised exercise programmes for chronic pain, mental health, better balance, and COPD.
• Implementation of Changing Lives projects from Tayside and Fife Regional Fund
- Ladyloan without limits, in partnership with Angus Active Schools to support those pupils facing the most barriers to accessing an active lifestyle
- Community Health and Wellbeing with ANGUSalive and Strathmore Community Rugby Trust
Year one highlights:
• Active Schools Programme re-established with XX pupils participating in extra-curricular provision
• Re-introduction of volunteer led extracurricular activity with xxxx free sessions delivered across the academic year.
• Community clubs across Angus negotiated the Covid-19 guidance safely and diligently, they are now once again operating at levels seen prior to the pandemic.
• Angus Alive were delighted to reopen their Sport & Leisure facilities and begin to re-establish many different provisions within these sites including public swimming, gym usage and adult/junior coached activities
Year two priorities:
• To continue to re-build the extracurricular offering across all schools with a renewed focus on equality diversity and inclusion, to further broaden the range of participants.
Year one highlights:
• Establishment of PE Physical Activity and Sport (PEPAS) ASN network
• Introduction of targeted motor skills interventions at lower primary school age, through Active Schools.
• Pilot of resilience and wellbeing interventions through physical activity and sport at primary school age, using
• Developing a programme of practitioner training to improve the delivery of physical education within an ASN context.
• 280 Bicycles donated to Angus Residents through the Recycle project in partnership with Angus Cycle Hub since August 2021
Year two priorities:
• Develop a more inclusive ASN sport and physical activity offering within the current extracurricular programme in schools
• In partnership with the Angus Promise group increase the number of care experienced children and young people in sport and physical activity opportunities.
• A focus for the PE Network Group has been the moderation of the Broad General Education offer across our secondary schools to ensure a consistent offer and framework for the subject across Angus, this will continue to be a priority during 20/22/23.
The uptake of the subject within the S3 elective being very high (45%+) in this year group, which is the highest level of uptake across all subjects other than English and Maths, which are mandatory subjects.
Post lockdown all secondary schools reported unprecedented low levels of dropouts in PE lessons, partly due to the inability to use changing room spaces, which highlighted a longstanding barrier to participation for some students.
We encourage and enable the active to stay active throughout life
We develop physical confidence and competence from the earliest age
We improve our Active Infrastructure - people and places
Year one highlights:
• A range of club CPD opportunities delivered, with 102 local volunteers and coaches achieving a range of qualifications
• Four Disability Inclusion Training courses with 38 local coaches gaining qualifications
• Monifieth Athletic completing the development of their new 3G synthetic pitch
• Relaunch of the Sports Leadership Academy after covid for S4-6 pupils across ten national qualifications. 79 Angus pupils achieved a qualification in October 2021 and another 168 in June 2022.
• The re-engagement of the volunteer workforce around school sport and physical activity with XXX volunteers actively delivering.
• Launch of the Angus Club Grant Scheme, supporting 22 clubs with over £19900 of investment
• Relaunch of Community Sport Hubs across Angus
• Within Further Education, approximately 98% of Dundee and Angus College Angus based students were redeployed within the local community. This activity included coaching within primary schools, secondary schools and/or community club settings.
Year two priorities:
• Through the development of the Angus Club Excellence Portal, improve the support by professional officers around clubs and volunteers.
• Educate our network of leaders with the knowledge to understand and represent the communities they are delivering to
• Deliver training to our community leaders on how to be effective mentors
• Create an inclusive leadership pathway. Through pro-active engagement we will ensure that these opportunities are accessed by a wide range of young people
• Skillz Academy to redevelop and open the synthetic pitch at Arbroath High School
resilience in communities through physical activity and sport
Year one highlights:
• Park Runs established in Arbroath, Montrose and Forfar
• Implement the Five ways to wellbeing project, connecting with young people across Angus to co-design Health and Wellbeing programmes with 144 young people taking part in phase one.
• Work in partnership with local groups, local people and organisations to build communitybased health and wellbeing programmes:
- Bite and Blether in Arbroath - numbers of participants have increased by over 50% most weeks with average 30 people attending each session
- Numbers of participants in wee walks have increased by nearly 70%
- New walking groups formed and now running in Forfar, Arbroath, Brechin and Carnoustie supported by local volunteers
- Feedback from participants - Reducing isolation, improved mental health and improved physical activity. This section is quite vague, not sure what participants this part relates to?
Year two priorities:
• Relaunch the Angus Sports Awards process to celebrate long standing club and community volunteers and profile local community champions.
• Further develop the Branching Out programme to engage more volunteers and participants
• Utilise the School Sport Award as a framework for school sport to determine strengths and areas for improvement in a schools PEPAS offer
• Support the development of community football trusts in Arbroath and Brechin, (and Montrose) building partnerships across localities.
Year one highlights:
• Schools Sport Competition re-established with a focus on activities restarting
• Development of the Tayside & Fife Performance Planning Group
• Local athlete highlights include:
- Hailey Duff MBE (Curler) – Gold at Beijing Winter Olympics (2022)
- Darren Burnett (Lawn Bowls) – Doubles Indoor World Title (2022) / Commonwealth Games selection for Birmingham 2022
- Ben Hudson (Tennis): Scottish Junior Doubles ‘18 and Under’ winner. Scottish Men’s Indoor TS1000 runner up in singles & winner of doubles with partner Scott MacAuley. Runner up at the Welsh Open ‘18 and under’ and won ‘18’s doubles’ with partner Jack Deveney. Won 2 x International Tennis under 18 events at Wrexham and Liverpool
- XX athletes currently supported by the Tayside & Fife institute of sport, across XX different sports from Angus
Year two priorities:
• Re-establishing complete School Sport Competition calendar
• Gain a greater understanding of barriers to competition for those that are and are not currently accessing these opportunities.
• Mapping of opportunities and associated cost of competitive opportunities across Angus
• Development of the Emerging Athlete Support and Development programme
• Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games – Bit vague can we add info
We improve opportunities to participate, progress and achieve in sport
Case Study Move More ANGUSalive May 2022
ANGUSalive is working in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support to develop Move More across Angus. Move More Scotland is part of Macmillan Cancer Support’s national campaign to support people living with and beyond cancer to find an activity that is right for them, with individually tailored health behaviour change support for people to continue to be active.
Macmillan Cancer Support has provided £120,000 of funding over a period of three years to support ANGUSalive in developing a sustainable pathway for anyone living with cancer with help to be physically active. In addition to our established programme of activities, we have developed a programme of cancer specific opportunities including gentle movement, walking, gardening, and circuit-based classes. During the restrictions of the pandemic, we started offering online sessions. We have continued to do this and deliver weekly Gentle Movement and circuit-based classes, as well as 1:1 sessions online.
Volunteers are crucial in the delivery of Move More ANGUSalive. We have volunteers trained to deliver
Gentle Movement and currently three volunteers deliver sessions on a weekly basis. Volunteer walk leaders from Paths for All programmes in Angus have received Macmillan CORE training, so that we are able to offer 5 ‘Macmillan Friendly’ health walks each week in partnership with existing Health walk groups. ANGUSalive have also upskilled their specialist exercise instructors, with 4 individuals undertaking level 4 training in cancer rehabilitation.
Since launching the programme in 2019, 110 people living with cancer have benefited from the programme. Referrals are received from Ninewells Cancer Specialists, Macmillan Services, Maggie’s, and other health practitioners, but we also encourage selfreferrals.
May 2022 saw the launch of a partnership with Forfar Open Garden to expand the physical activity offering to include gardening. Our aim is to provide physical activity at a level that’s right for each individual. We hope that adding gardening to the current provision listed below will attract even more people living with cancer to enjoy being active with Move More ANGUSalive.
NW (Forfar, Kirriemuir)
• 1 Health Walk (Forfar)
• 1 Gentle Movement (Forfar)
• Gardening at Forfar Open Garden (launching 19 May)
SW (Monifieth, Carnoustie)
• Macmillan Friendly Circuit class (Carnoustie)
ONLINE:
• 1 Gentle Movement weekly
• 3 Circuit Classes weekly
• 1-1’s
NE (Edzell, Brechin, Montrose)
• Macmillan Friendly Circuit class (Brechin)
• 2 Macmillan Friendly Circuit classes (Montrose)
• 1 Health walk (Montrose)
• 1 Gentle Movement class (Edzell)
• 1 Health Walk (Brechin)
SE (Arbroath, Friockheim)
• Macmillan Friendly Circuit class (Saltire)
• 2 Health Walks (Arbroath)
Participant/volunteer testimonial
Ijoined the Carnoustie group at the Sports Centre through my Macmillan nurse I became involved with Move More after my second surgery to try and remove my brain tumour. I started with basic Gentle Movement to retrain my brain to do basic movements and to meet other people. At Maggies in Dundee I benefited from the Gentle Movement and after a period of time I was able to progress with help of the centre, staff and instructors so that I could progress with other people around me and attend normal classes and gym work while still continuing with Gentle Movement and Maggies. Meanwhile, after some time in my recovery I was given the opportunity to become an instructor in Gentle Movement where I met other people studying to become instructors too.
After completing my training, I became an instructor with ANGUSalive and took classes in various locations in Carnoustie where my confidence began to grow.
This was before lockdown when all of this happened. When the pandemic began, I became more isolated, depressed and lonely as I was not able to go out and mix with other people.
I was fortunate to be offered online exercise arranged through ANGUSalive and Macmillan which enabled me to continue to do an exercise plan. This kept me going to have a sense of purpose and have people around me and the support of the instructors too.
Now that the threat of covid has passed it has been like a rebirth by being able to go back to the sports centre to do the classes while meeting and greeting more people again. The classes I have done through ANGUSalive have helped not only my physical health but also my mental health. The staff are friendly and helpful and have a sense of community around you.
Case Study New Waves, Quiet Swim Sessions
Outcome
Through inclusive planning, ANGUSalive in partnership with Get out Get Active (GOGA) developed the New Waves Quiet Swim Sessions in July 2021 for individuals and families who faced barriers to participate in activities.
These sessions allow for:
• Reduced number of people in the pool
• Reduced sound within the pool environment
• Opportunities to meet with other families and make new friends
We encourage and support individuals and families to participate in the session by building support that is shaped around them, to help them to be active together.
Quotes from family members:
“We chose to come along as we found it impossible to find a family activity that will fit around our sons needs. Places are either too busy or noisy for him. I thought the quiet session would be ideal to reintroduce him to swimming after lockdown and also allow us to enjoy time together in a friendly and judgement free zone”
Amy, participant.
“We absolutely love coming along to swimming each week, it’s now part of our routine. The best thing for me about New Waves is that I can finally take my son to an activity that he loves, and everyone is so understanding if there is a little blip/meltdown. My son’s face when we turn into the car park and hearing him say ‘wow’ really makes my day. He has managed to build his confidence massively, from week 1 not being able to go into the pool to now swimming about by himself. It’s brilliant that there is finally an activity we can go to with ease and love so much. We really have taken so much from the sessions”
Cameron, participant.
1: Through a culture of inclusive planning and practice we will ensure people feel they belong and are welcome, engaged, and connected to sport and physical activity in Angus.
The sessions are currently funded by ANGUSalive and GOGA and since launching to end of March 2022 269 children/young adults and 155 families have relished the benefits, thus ensuring our facilities are welcoming and accessible for all.
2022/23 will see a New Waves ‘2’ Quiet Swim
Appendix 1
Angus Sport and Physical Activity Planning Partnership - List of Group Members
Angus Council | sportscotland | Dundee and Angus College
ANGUSalive | NHS Tayside | Voluntary Action Angus
July 2022