8. What role does Sport Wales play in delivering the objectives of the Healthy and Active Fund? OAQ54526

The Healthy and Active Fund is delivered through a partnership between the Government, Sport Wales and Public Health Wales, with Sport Wales playing the lead role in the administration of the fund. The result of that is that all partners will be part of the monitoring of the project and the oversight of the fund.

Excellent. Since the Government decided to revise the free swimming offer and make it more explicitly targeted on areas of deprivation, I've had lots of correspondence from some of the 6 per cent of over-60s who've enjoyed the untargeted free swimming offer, but no correspondence at all from young people or their parents who may have been affected by the revised scheme for under-16-year-olds. 

I'm quite keen to understand how the new, targeted offer is going to benefit more of the sorts of people who really do need to take up that offer, because, unfortunately, it's been rather a well-kept secret. In the area that I represent, we've got Pentwyn Leisure Centre, which is at the heart of a super-output area of deprivation. So, I'm really keen to understand how this new offer is going to affect them.

How is the Welsh Government, in conjunction with Sport Wales, going to measure the success of the revised scheme to ensure that those who most need to benefit—i.e. young people who have yet to learn to swim—are going to take up that free swimming offer and not be further disadvantaged by the reduction in funding?

The reduction in funding is a reduction specifically on a scheme that was clearly not reaching the populations for whom it was intended. But it certainly is our intention that the younger people should benefit from this initiative. The key, to us, is working with the leisure centres themselves and with the local authorities, and this is Sport Wales's intention.

Our Healthy and Active Fund remains a key to this, to stimulate more innovative approaches to all forms of physical activity. And, in that approach, we are also encouraging all of the authorities involved to be monitoring the response, and we will have an evaluation from Sport Wales of the impact of the changes that we have made on their recommendation.