Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean. Since I became the Minister responsible for community sport and physical activity earlier this year I have been trying to meet as many people involved in the sector as possible. What has really shone through so far is people�s incredible passion for sport and the belief that it can change lives.
Some of that passion is reflected in the tremendously exciting summer of sport that we�ve all lived through. To see our football team�s success in the Euros and to watch our athletes compete so successfully in the Olympics and Paralympics has been an absolute pleasure. It was also a real honour to be at the homecoming ceremony last Thursday and to hear so many inspiring stories.
I share that passion and belief in the power of sport. I�ve seen the difference that involvement in a range of sports has made to people all over Wales. The development of self confidence, an increase in self esteem and the ability to be a team player make a significant difference to the life chances of children and young people, just as increased mobility and reduced risk of chronic disease can enhance the quality of life of our older citizens.
Reducing health and social inequalities and improving people�s lives is at the core of this Government�s aims and is central to a defining piece of legislation passed by the last Government � The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. One key element of the Act is its �five ways of working�. These require us to adopt a long term perspective, to seek integration with others, to think about prevention rather than cure, to work in a collaborative way and to involve others.
I believe that this means a change for all of us who work in sport and public health.
I believe this because it�s becoming clear to me that our current approaches to increasing levels of physical activity are not working well enough. Despite years of marketing campaigns and large scale public expenditure, the numbers of people who meet the Chief Medical Officer�s guidelines for weekly physical activity remain stubbornly low. Technology seems to conspire to make people�s lives easier and less active. Children spend increasing amounts of time in virtual worlds, and much less time out in the real world.
Research tells us that top down, �one size fits all� programmes just do not work in the long term. What does work is a person centred approach, based within communities, that has an authentic voice and a relevant message for that community.
I saw a wonderful example of this recently when I visited a girls� gymnastic club in Butetown. There, Welsh Gymnastics have worked with the local community to develop a club that has enabled the girls and their mothers to develop new skills and abilities that have spilled over from gymnastics into every aspect of their lives.
It is clear to me that a partnership approach where we define and agree long term outcomes and how delivery of those outcomes will be measured, is the key to creating this person centred approach and enabling people to take some responsibility for their own health by living and eating well.
Key to Government because it enables us to align policy and delivery and ensure value for money; key to those working in the sector, because long term goals set by the Government enable organisations to plan for the future; and most of all key to the people of Wales, enabling all of us to help reduce health and social inequalities and give everyone a chance to live a healthy life.
Through working together to maintain wellness rather than cure illness, we can achieve something very significant. Not only will we have more people participating in physical activity, sport or active recreation, we will also be building a nation that can continue to deliver more of the kind of athletes that came to the Senedd last week to celebrate their success.
I want that level of success to become what people expect from us. I�m looking forward to working with everybody involved in the sector to achieve this vision.
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