sportdevelopment.org.uk - Wolfenden is web-published !

The Wolfenden Report (1960) is the first sport policy statement in the United Kingdom, as a result of this CCPR document the various Sports Councils were set up in the UK and the sports development agenda owes much of it's framework to this 1960 landmark document.

The British Library don't have a copy, nor do the CCPR (we think), the parliamentary archives don't, Sport England disposed of their information section some time ago and the DCMS were not even thought of as possible in 1960 and so this important document was lost to students of sports development - that is - until now !. A full and original version of the Wolfenden report has, until now,  eluded us since we started this website, providing documents for students in sports development yet, courtesy of two of our second year students - Hannah & Becky - we have discovered not one, but two original print copies of Wolfenden and we have begun the process of making the text available. Our digital re-mastering of this 45 year old text is available for reading in BETA form (we need to proof the copy) so you can read but not print at the moment; visit here to see it ! We are also re-mastering it for ease of use for students..... in the meanwhile....

Have you seen  the National sports development database, it is now entirely web-based and members have much more control over their membership information. First of all we automatically send email to confirm membership (this means that we verify user addresses before we add them to the list), secondly, we send confirmation email giving users information about how to remove themselves from the list or update their preferences so that they can join / or alter which datalists they are on. The success of the new methods has been such that we are gaining members to the datalists at the rate of over 150 people a month.

Have a look at our sports development community discussion forums, where members can post questions and comments and fellow members post replies in real time and about any sports development assessment question (for students) or sports development topic (for professionals) and where good practice or assessment guidance may be offered by any other member. We hope that academics will sign up to the forum and help guide students and that experienced professionals will sign up providing guidance for less experienced practitioners. These discussion forums are supported and monitored by our own resident academics, Betty, Gladys and Edna, who are always on hand to provide helpful comments. Have a look, you can browse as a guest here, but to post and offer comments you should be a member (this can be anonymous)

We have forums for student help, professional interactions and comment about what you would like to see on this site (and comments about the site) - see them !

Driving up participation: The challenge for sport

One of the most significant additions to the site this month is the document which advised Sport England's current strategy for sport - (the National Framework for sport), a series of 11 desk studies commissioned by Sport England entitled " Driving up participation - The challenge for sport"). This document we have split into it's sections for ease of downloading and accessibility and we can feel a few student exam / assessment questions based on these individual papers. Not quite a "Bouchard" for you sports scientists, it remains a useful collection of the state of research in certain sports development topic areas by some heavyweight academics in the UK. Well worth a look.

"Rough Guides" have had to be renamed as Ruff Guides

The Penguin group [publishers] have tried to cash in on sportdevelopment.org.uk's popularity; claiming the trade mark of "Rough Guides" they have insisted that we remove those words from our site unless we purchase a license, the terms of which would give them some control over our content. We of course refused and have changed "Rough" to "Ruff" in order not to be infiltrated by them despite some nasty tactics like writing to the VC at the institution at which the author works. To tell them what you think about their tactics just email the MD of the Penguin Group; or just avoid buying their books.

The person who drove these tactics at Penguin was Will Bowes

• Ruff guide to sport and social enterprise
• Sport England's - National Framework for sport
• Driving up participation- The challenge for sport
• Multi-sports hub clubs
• New National sports development database
• Sports development discussion forum
• Football research bibliography
• The impact of school sports partnerships (2004)
• EU - School sport & Sport and Multiculturalism
• Streetgames
• Wolfenden report (1960)
• Olympic Games Impact

One of our best students [Emma] came into the office last month asking how she might reference "Bringing Britain Together". the cornerstone cmnd paper underpinning New Labours' social exclusion agenda.

Emma had downloaded it from the Office of the Deputy Prime Ministers' website only to find that the PDF was footnoted from our sportdevelopment.org.uk site - yes we had manufactured a PDF from a previous government website - the SEU had taken that and published it on their own site without noticing that we had footnoted it for "educational purposes only and put our name on it.

Visits from government departments, the TUC, the EU, government Ministers and officials have increased as a consequence! oops! - the Government harvest from the internet too! but hey we know that!

Visit the SEU's page here - or get our "original"

AVOID OPPRESSION

Don't but anything from Penguin Books or the Pearson Group - see narrative left....