Introduction
The success of many social or cultural activities in society relies on effective policies made and on a proper management of the policies. By proper management of the policies, it is pertinent for government to be evaluative in terms of how such emergent policies affect a defined public, for example a sporting public. This paper will discuss how policies from administrative governments have affected free swimming within the UK. Factors that influence or necessitate the policies will be discussed; particular attention will be paid to the conservative government, in this regard. The machinery for evaluating, implementing as well as monitoring of the workability of governmental policies will be considered explicitly, using an evaluative approach. Relevant academic theories that have considered influence of governmental policies on society will be discussed in support of the topic in consideration.
Factors That Have Influenced Free Swimming Policy within the UK
A government policy may be said to be an emphasised approach to handling of a certain activity or certain activities either in the administration of a particular government or in the public sector of the government. In a democratic government, for a policy to be accepted, it must receive proper attention by passing through parliamentary or legislative governments, and it should receive the full approval of the executive. It can also be considered to be a commitment of the government by which the government can be accessed. Considering sporting, Free Swimming particularly, a policy can then be said to be a consistent commitment of government to ensuring achievements, public satisfaction, and a prospect for the element of society. In other words, a policy from a particular government may be defined as ‘we –the government – can be held accountably to this commitment’.
However, very unfortunately, even though policies are meant to stand, they often collapse with the pass-away of administrations. A collapse of one such commitment to free swimming is noted by Dallah as follows:
‘The Government’s “ground-breaking” free swimming scheme for children and the elderly is to be scrapped as part of cost-saving measures ahead of the London 2012 Olympics. The scheme for the under-16s and over-60s was launched by the Labour Government in 2008 as a London Olympic legacy initiative’ (Dallah 7).
In this brief quotation, Dallah has expressed a collapse of a policy. The consistency or collapse of policies meant to benefit society is resultant of factors. For free swimming within the United Kingdom, these factors include:
- Economical – this include situations where government can no longer fund for the policy; and
- Political – a shift in administration or inconsistence of responsibility by a particular administration may account for the annulment of a free swimming policy meant to benefit the public.
Economical Factors
Considering the instance stated by Dallah (7) above, the factor responsible for scrapping the free swimming is an economic climate necessary for ‘cost-saving’ with regard to the 2012 London Olympic game. And since free swimming and the Olympic Games are interrelated, a scale of preference by the conservative government weighed down against free swimming. Hence, free swimming became a luxury that government could not afford any longer!
Political
Free swimming was instituted by Labour Party in 2008 to help get people more interested in sporting activities by year 2012. Politically, the conservative party may be against the policy since it emerged from an opposition part. This will be a necessary step for the party to create an image that policies that have emerged from the Labour party are not beneficial to the public. It could be a secrete step for stampeding and destroying the image of the opposition party. Otherwise, it is imaginative how government would have to scrap a policy that was highly beneficial to the public with an excuses that it was lacking funds when government has numerous ways to source for fund else where!
Other factors that may necessarily Influence the policy of free swimming within the UK by Conservative party include:
- Environmental – this may include instances where environmental changes such as global warming could make free swimming dangerous; and
- Epidemical – there could be an outbreak of a disease such as flu which may make free swimming unhealthy for the participating public.
Evaluation and Monitoring of Policies on Free Swimming policy in the UK
Evaluation of a policy is a process which focuses on collection, evaluation and interpretation of data and has to do with analyzing how effective an enterprise has being over time; in case of this paper, the evaluation of decisions from the conservative party is considered. Evaluation is achievable in two ways, collective and forming evaluations. Evaluation enhances feedback by providing required information which may be used in planning and in implementation of a progressive data. There are several approaches to evaluation including STEPV. The evaluation of policies on free swimming policy in the UK is as follows:
First, a definition of the policy on free swimming in the UK is necessary. In this regard, swimming is considered as been a major life skill with several noteworthy health benefits accrued to it. This is more so because swimming is an activity which is done leisurely and nearly effortlessly without a discrimination of ability and age. Prior to an individual’s participation in any swimming competition, the individual requires to acquire swimming skills as a must. For UK, which would host the Olympics in 2012, encouraging the public to participate actively in the sporting of swimming through free swimming has enormous benefits. However, getting people trained for swimming is not without challenges which are majorly financially, through acquiring equipments. Politically, there are stakeholders who shoulder responsibilities for getting willing persons into learning. For example, the STA is concerned with training of swimmers in 25 countries worldwide, such as training lifesavers, pool plant operatives, and first aid personals. However, even though STA has achieved much, it has been denied accordance for stakeholders. And these issues may be considered to be purely political. The conservative government in the UK is of the opinion that since swimming is a part of swimming, matters regarding it should better be directed straight to Sport England and such governmental agencies. So there are rising complications mixed with professionalism and Conservative policy stakeholders. An effective academic ideology for evaluation and scrutinize of policies on free swimming policy in the UK known as kolb has been suggested by as follow:
Kolb’s learning cycle contains the following four phases: gaining hands-on experience, observing this experience, drawing conclusions from this experience, and testin these ideas in experiments, which again will result in new behaviour and experiences. This philosophy includes a composition of closely-related management concepts, which together form a harmonious whole, (Rampersad 37).
Conclusion
This paper has discussed how policies from administrative governments have affected free swimming within the UK. Factors that influence or necessitate the policies have been considered; particular attention is being paid to the conservative government. The machinery for evaluating, implementing as well as monitoring of the workability of governmental policies has also been considered, explicitly, using an evaluative approach. And a relevant academic theory that views influence of governmental policies on the swimming is discussed in support of the topic.
Cited Works
Dallah, Nabala. Get set for the 2012 Olympic Game in UK. London: Langu, 2009. Print.
Rampersad, Hand. Personal Balanced Scorecard: The Way to Individual Happiness, Personal Integrity and Organizational Effectiveness. New Delhi: Tata McGraw- Hill, 2009. Print.