Sport and physical activity policy in Scotland: an intersectional approach to addressing inequalities

Key health indicators and participation rates across sport and physical activity have remained stagnant in Scotland since it gained devolution powers. Across the same period, evidence has demonstrated that inequalities in health and participation continue to worsen, raising concerns about the effectiveness of policy to be able to stymie such inequalities from becoming entrenched within society. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse current issues with sport and physical activity policy in Scotland through an intersectional framework, understand the experiences of delivering such policy, and how future policy might be developed to be more effective in addressing issues of inequality. The data was collected as part of an academic fellowship with the Scottish Parliament, which enabled access to 23 individuals in key decision-making roles at 20 different organisations with responsibilities for the implementation of sport and physical activity policy in Scotland. The results indicate significant challenges in current approaches to policy delivery, including an over-reliance on universalism and a lack of intersectional applications. It is argued that inequalities should be understood both in terms of their individual characteristics and also being contextualised in an intersectional way. This position informs the recommendations for future policy development.