Tuesday 06 February 2024
The Committee for Education, Sport & Culture is proposing to fund the delivery of Active 8 'Plan for Sport' workstreams for 2024 from within its existing budget and is committed to trying to embed its funding indefinitely as part of the budget process.
An amendment lodged to the Government Work Plan to try and secure this funding from the General Reserve by Deputy Dudley-Owen was withdrawn before the recent debate due to a reallocation of existing Committee budget there is funding for the current year. The Committee will now pursue a solution which ensures the Plan has long-term funding from its future budgets.
The Active 8 Plan for Sport was originally agreed as a 10-year plan, however the previous Committee for Education, Sport & Culture secured only three years of funding for delivery. Rather than securing money incrementally, the current Committee wants to find a way to fund the work of the Health Improvement Commission and the Guernsey Sports Commission so that the goals of Active 8 become embedded indefinitely, rather than creating funding uncertainty every few years.
Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen, President of the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture, said:
"I am pleased that the funding for Active 8 in 2024 has been found within our existing 2024 budget so the Health Improvement Commission and the Guernsey Sports Commission can receive funding to deliver workstreams this year.
"The amendment to the Government Work Plan that Deputy Cameron and I originally submitted would have secured this funding for six more years after 2024, until the end of the original 10 years of the Active 8 plan. However, with funding becoming available from within Committee budget it felt wrong to ask the States to approve funding from the General Reserve account when we had funds to use, for this reason there was a real risk that it would not approved and the work being de-funded. We do not want a future Committee to find itself in the position we find ourselves now, where the long-term activities under the Active 8 plan are once again un-funded. It is on that basis that we have decided to look for a way to fund the Plan through future budgets, thereby giving the Commissions the long-term funding surety they need to plan into the future. We will do this in close collaboration with both parties, and we know that we can achieve great value for taxpayers by delivering some services and initiatives by partnering with Commissions in this way."
Other aspects of the Guernsey Sports Commission and Health Improvement Commission are funded through standard budget allocations. It is only elements under the Active 8 plan which were affected by this funding arrangement, however the Committee aims to bring it in line with those remaining elements.
