Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report

1. Executive Summary

1.1. The purpose of this paper is to endorse the approach being taken for Hampshire County Council to derive benefit from and provide support to London 2012.

1.2. It is proposed that Hampshire County Council focus on 3 broad work areas; schools, corporate programmes and support to the geographic county of Hampshire.

2. Contextual information

2.1. London 2012 is only three years away from the opening ceremony. Increased awareness has become evident in recent months and more questions are being raised about legacy at a local and county level.

2.2. Since the last report to cabinet in September 2008, a number of events and discussions have taken place which has helped to progress the London 2012 offer.

2.3. Schools - A workshop was held with Head teachers, language specialists, school sport partnership managers, competition managers and other education representatives to examine the opportunities that London 2012 provided for schools. The output from this meeting was then considered further by a small group of Head Teachers to hone into the most important areas. The group identified some key projects (this is not an exhaustive list and many more ideas have been captured for future development):

· Get Set - all schools could be encouraged to sign up to the LOCOG Get Set programme, a resource designed to use the power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to inspire children and young people across the UK and around the world. The resource is based around the values of the Games; friendship, courage, determination, excellence, equality, respect and inspiration. So far, a number of Hampshire's schools have signed up to Get Set and we would aim to encourage all our schools to do the same. The resource is an excellent tool to promote cross curricular learning as well as make the learning more relevant, interesting and fun.

· Olympian for life - Led by Rushmoor Borough Council, this is a new project, built around Olympic ideals and aimed at inspiring greatness in youngsters in whatever field or career path they choose. David Hemery, Olympic Gold medalist in the 400m hurdles in the 1968 Olympic Games held in Mexico is the leading figure behind the project which has been designed as a legacy for young people. It has been piloted and reviewed in the west of England with promising results. Due to Aldershot's success in securing the pre games training camp for Team GB, an opportunity has been secured to deliver the project in local schools in the Farnborough and Aldershot area in September 2009. If successful, the project could be rolled out to other schools in targeted areas.

· Schools welcoming their communities - schools could plan events leading up to and during the Games to welcome in their local communities providing cultural festivals. The Hampshire Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS) are already underway with a programme based on learning about languages and countries in one of the community languages.

· Hampshire welcomes the world - through international exchange programmes and the use of multi media technology, schools and other organisations working with young people across Hampshire could ensure that they have an opportunity to take part in the South East's Create, Compete, Collaborate project. This project is aimed at every young person being able to create, compete or collaborate with a young person from a competitor country during the period 2008/2012.

Personal Best - Led by Learning Links on the Isle of Wight and Albion in the community in Havant, Personal Best is a training and volunteering programme for people who are not in work or education, but would like to gain opportunities to volunteer in their community and at the same time improve their skills and chances of getting a job. The Games will need 70,000 volunteers. Graduates of this programme are guaranteed an interview to volunteer at the Games. Havant and the Isle of Wight will be the targeted areas.

· Fit and healthy - a range of interventions, led by Hampshire County Council and other organisations are already in place to encourage young people to lead active and healthy lifestyles; healthy schools, the 5 hour offer in both sport and culture and a reduction in childhood obesity. These programmes will be continued into 2011 with a strong push to achieve the 5 hour offer for sport and culture to all young people across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and for all schools to achieve the enhanced healthy schools status by 2011. Active travel could also be a key feature of a 2012 legacy focusing on walking and cycling to school, cycling confidence classes, specially designed `Olympic routes' and the home to school project in Farnborough.

2.4. All those involved in the initial London 2012 workshop felt that this was an "opportunity not to be missed". They did however stress that urgency was required and that there is a need for a centrally co-ordinated approach, supported by a dedicated resource.

2.5. Corporate programmes - Progress has been made in the areas of the 5 hour sport and culture offer. Baseline data is currently being gathered for sport in order to map progress over the next 3 years.

2.6. Find Your Talent - PUSH has written the development of 2012 legacy programmes into its planning for this and the following year in particular in developing links with the Create, Compete, Collaborate programme outlined above. FYT has an emphasis on working with 0 -19 young people and their families outside of formal curriculum activity. This provides opportunities to engage with extended schools, the Youth Service and in early years settings etc in a complementary manner. In addition, the projects present opportunities for sport and culture to work more closely together to deliver an improved offer to Hampshire's young people.

2.7. Partnership working with health has progressed and work continues to encourage adults to take 5 x 30 mins of moderate intensity physical activity a week.

2.8. Economic Development continue to promote the "compete for" website through the business portal. Compete for has been designed to help companies be ready to compete for business contracts. In May 2009, 18 companies in Hampshire and Isle of Wight have won games related contracts, 995 have published their profiles that indicates that they are ready to tender and 1149 are preparing their profiles.

2.9. Westbury Manor Museum are planning "A Nation of Sailors" exhibition in 2012, working with Olympic sailors and local businesses.

2.10. A joint project between Hampshire County Council's Music Service and the Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs Department aims to celebrate the Olympic Games with and for people living in Hampshire. The project offers an opportunity to share world music and culture with people of all ages across the county in a series of co-ordinated participatory events taking place in five unusual locations. An application will be made to Arts Council England to support this ambitious project and an application will be made for "Inspire mark", the badge of the London 2012 Inspire programme.

2.11. After its initial success last year, the London 2012 Open Week-end, a week-end where organisations can open up their facilities and services free of charge, has continued into this year. If this becomes a feature each year leading up to the Games, Hampshire can be better prepared to take part, thereby supporting the Culture-all campaign and encouraging our communities to become more active in a wealth of sport and cultural activities. This could be further enhanced if organisations across Hampshire could be encouraged to get involved.

2.12. Many more opportunities and innovative ideas exist within County Council Departments but more needs to be done to unlock them and support their development.

2.13. Co-ordination in Hampshire - as the Games get closer an increasing number of local authorities have expressed the need for co-ordination across the county. A recent example of the need for co-ordination was the pre games training camp workshop. The county council took the lead role to plan and deliver this workshop on behalf of those with facilities listed in the facilities guide for International Olympic and Paralympic Committees. The workshop was designed to help prepare for potential visits from the committees.

2.14. At a recent event held with portfolio holders and officers across the county, there was an expressed need to work together on the London 2012 agenda and a workshop was proposed for the autumn. A workshop will be delivered and a briefing note will also be taken to the Chief Culture and Leisure Officers group in July to consider the need for a London 2012 countywide group to assist with co-ordination and encouragement by all areas to get involved.

2.15. Other work that we are aware of includes a book that is being written by Martin Polley at Southampton University on the history of the Games in Hampshire, sponsored by English Heritage. With the right support and co-ordination, this work could be delivered across Hampshire in the form of an exhibition. We know that freelance journalists are looking for stories and again, with co-ordination, opportunities for interesting and good news stories could be promoted.

2.16. Opportunities from regional initiatives are becoming available and with appropriate co-ordination and support, Hampshire could access for example, Accentuate, the region's legacy project aimed at using "the inspiration provided by the International Paralympic Movement, with its origins in South East England, to tackle disadvantage, raise aspirations and celebrate excellence".

Accentuate has five Outcome strands

· Accessible region - the SE as the most welcoming to disabled people

· Lead region - for disability and deaf cultural activity - a centre of excellence

· Paralympic region - the birthplace of the Paralympic movement is recognised and celebrated

· Celebrate and Commission - raised awareness of the values of personal best and going for gold

· Create Compete Collaborate.

3. Finance

3.1. The opportunities outlined above for Hampshire County Council to support London 2012 will require a level of dedicated resource in the short term. Using existing budget resources, an internal secondment will be sought to lead this important work on behalf of all the partners who have expressed an interest in developing the 2012 legacy across Hampshire.

4. Performance

4.1. Hampshire County Council has made a start to its London 2012 offer but more work needs to be done to ensure that Hampshire County Council and its partners make the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity.

5. Other key issues

5.1. The audit commission has listed London 2012 on their list of potential projects to discuss. At a local level, the Games offer an ideal vehicle to promote cross departmental working and provide opportunity to inspire and deliver innovative solutions to some of the corporate challenges the county council faces, for example, children in care, the impact of the recession, health inequalities, etc.

5.2. The opportunities afforded by London 2012 have the potential to impact upon the new CC&RA priorities and the Department's aspiration to develop further cross departmental working. London 2012 can be used to model the use of matrix management in the delivery of the Department's London 2012 offer.

6. Future direction

6.1. A growing sense of urgency is being expressed for Hampshire County Council, local authorities and other organisations to engage further in London 2012.

6.2. With the support of Hampshire County Council corporately, a legacy action plan, incorporating many of the activities outlined in paragraph 2, can be developed and delivered for the benefit of its residents. In addition, the growing interest in London 2012 of all the local authorities in Hampshire & IOW can be captured in a workshop to be delivered in the autumn of 2009.

7. Recommendations

7.1. That the Executive member endorse the approach being taken for Hampshire County Council to derive benefit from and provide support to London 2012 from within existing budget resources.

7.2. That Hampshire County Council focuses on 3 broad work areas; schools, corporate programmes and support to the geographic county of Hampshire.

7.3. That a workshop for a legacy plan for London 2012 be organised for the autumn of 2009.

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION:

Links to the Corporate Strategy

Other Significant Links

IMPACT ASSESSMENTS:

1. Equalities Impact Assessment:

1.1.

2. Impact on Crime and Disorder:

2.1.

3. Climate Change:

a) How does what is being proposed impact on our carbon footprint / energy consumption?

b) How does what is being proposed consider the need to adapt to climate change, and be resilient to its longer term impacts?