Another government.

Another Sports Minister.

Another Sports Strategy.

Any 1st year sports studies student can probably predict with some confidence that it will include sections on participation, coaching, facilities, elite athletes, professional sport, staging major events and the structure of sports organisations.

Take a look back at Game Plan .This was the sport and physical activity strategy for Tony Blair's government published in 2002. Unsurprisingly it contains sections on the role of sport and physical activity in health, participation rates, creating a sport and physical activity culture, hosting mega events, international sporting success, the organisation of sport in the UK….

Will a 2015 version be just a case of "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose?"

Why do we even need a sports strategy, when we all know that George Osborne is unlikely to allow it to include firm funding commitments and even if it is constructed to cover a 10 year period, the next government is even less likely to feel bound by it?

Ten years is a long time. Who can confidently predict what social and cultural developments will take place in the next 10 years? There is no mention in Game Plan of the 2012 legacy, of Park Run or of personal fitness monitors.

Despite all that, I think we do need a renewed strategy and it should cover 10 years. Here is why…

We need a sports strategy now, because it must make strong and meaningful connections between sport, physical activity and physical inactivity. This is a window of opportunity that has to be grabbed, pushed wide open and bolted down for good.

The NHS is facing meltdown if it doesn't resolve the looming crisis of the cost of medicating for long term conditions. The greatest of these beasts is caused by physical inactivity. Get more people moving and there will be less people with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, even dementia. The NHS Five Year Forward View identifies that a move to prevention is essential. But we are yet to see the route plan for how that can be achieved. That is not to say that sport has all the answers (the last Active People Survey shows just how precarious participation figures are). But, together with health, we might just have a chance of making some real inroads. Making the connections between sport, physical activity, exercise, inactivity, long term conditions and the NHS will put sport into a strategically important position. It could also provide a funding lifeline for many of the local participation initiatives that have been supported through public health funding from local authority sources but are in great danger following the abolition of the ring fence for the public health grant. NHS funds for sports and exercise interventions that are firmly positioned in treatment pathways from the integrated world of health and social care and are part of a whole systems approach to dealing with prevention, primary care etc etc … it all adds up to a much more sustainable future for all of us.

This reason alone is enough to make the case for a new strategy for sport in 2015. There are additional reasons why it should be set up to last for 10 years. A 10 year strategy will only be worthwhile creating if it gets cross government and cross parliament sign up. This would avoid other departments riding rough shod over it and ensure that the next government – of whatever colour or combination, is already committed to it. The recent experience of losing the funding for school sports partnerships is still an open wound for many who were involved with this coordinated approach to improve the teaching of PE in primary schools by linking it to community sport and sports development pathways created around Specialist Sports Colleges. A consistency of support and stability for the organisations and structures that deliver sport is essential for achieving a sustained growth and development.

But there is more to it than that. Good strategies contain a means for measuring progress towards their aspirations. This doesn't mean that they should have immovable annual targets that are set from day one, which in retrospect show themselves to have been mixed with such a strong dose of optimism that they became unrealistic. It does mean having a set of performance indicators that can

be measured and evaluated to determine the year-on-year trend that emerges. As with the Active People Survey – its value comes not from any one time set of statistics, but in the trends that emerge over a period of years – rather like the fog gradually clearing. This approach will help to assess the value of different interventions. Using the same criteria year in year out for assessing progress will also give the sports lobby strong, consistent and defensible argument to continue to make the case for sport as time goes by.

So, yes, we do need a new Strategy for Sport now and it should last for 10 years. Maybe just this year we will get a new dawn and not another groundhog day.

Loretta Sollars has over 30 years experience of working across all regions of England in the voluntary, community and public sectors holding local, regional and national roles. She specialises in policy and strategy associated with health and wellbeing, health and social care integration, healthy lifestyles and work place health. www.wisesunflower.com