During October’s Scotland internationals, young people from Pollok United were this week invited to bring their after-school Extra Time session to Scotland’s national stadium, Hampden Park, receiving a tour of the home dressing room, a chance to walk out the tunnel and a visit from Scotland captain Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney and John Souttar.
Extra Time is a joint initiative between the Scottish Government and the Scottish FA that provides funding for over 50 local football clubs and trusts to provide free access to before school, after school and holiday clubs for targeted primary school children from families on low incomes.
Scottish FA Chief Executive Ian Maxwell spoke on the benefits to young people in the Extra Time programme;
“The benefits are significant, we see that on a regular basis. The analysis that the Scottish Government have done talks about young people's attainment young people’s attendance at school, their engagement at school, the impact it has on their families because not only does it cover pre and post school activity, it covers holiday periods when families can be under pressure in terms of annual leave, in terms of work commitments, in terms of dealing with other children within the family environment so the results are significant and we've seen the impact felt up and down the country.”
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Neil Gray was also in attendance at the event, and was fulsome in his praise of how the Extra Time programme benefits families;
“The pilot that was demonstrated by Ayr United has really shown what is possible for our community clubs, so I’m very grateful that we’ve now got over 50 that are participating in Extra Time, and it makes such a difference to us to be able to give children the chance to participate but also for families the opportunity to take on more hours at work and really get on and see their lives improve and take that step forward.”
Deborah McCabe, Pollok United Community Engagement and Funding Lead talked about how much the children enjoy the programme;
“The best bit is seeing the children’s faces and getting their feedback. We do an evaluation where it’s all emojis; a smiley face, a sad face, a happy face, a grumpy face and the kids are always telling us how much they enjoy it. They come and they’re allowed to socialise and they’re allowed to develop their interaction and communication skills with other children.”
The Scottish FA – as the national governing body for football – have developed a network of over 2,500 clubs across Scotland. The breadth and diversity of the communities these clubs serve is considerable, with many supporting areas with high levels of social deprivation.
Alongside the Scottish FA’s comprehensive knowledge of the national and regional football club landscape, the Extra Time clubs actively engage with schools, headteachers, local authorities, leisure trusts and other organisations to provide services which meet the needs of the families in their community. Extra Time aims to deliver activity-based services that have the ability to support parents into work, training, or studying (or to facilitate respite),whilst also reducing inequalities in access to a range of activities around the school day for those children who would otherwise not be able to access them.