The industry welcomes the clarity provided for the guidance to be able to share with its customers during a very confusing time for everyone.
“Schools can and should continue offering sports clubs or activities before or after school, in addition to their regular PE lessons, in order to support parents to work, seek work, or to undertake education or training, and for the purposes of respite care for vulnerable children.”
The most recent guidance from the Department for Education, published on 6 November 2020, also said that:
“All out of school activities which are not being primarily used by parents for these purposes should close for face-to-face provision for the duration of the national restrictions.”
The Youth Sport Trust, Sport and Recreation Alliance and ukactive sought clarity from the government and following consultation with government departments, have advised that:
Schools should continue to provide extra-curricular sport as long as they can do so in a way which, i) maintains the integrity of schools’ COVID-19 protocols such as the approach to bubbles, staffing, and social distancing and ii) is subject to appropriate risk assessment.
Where the guidance refers to supporting parents to work, there is no additional need for schools to prove that extra-curricular clubs are helping parents to work or seek work.
Extra-curricular clubs should not take place if they are bringing together groups of young people who would not otherwise be spending time together. Competition between different schools should not take place, in line with the wider restrictions on grassroots sport.
This interpretation of the full guidance has been approved by the Department for Education and Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport.
Read the full update here
