Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 7
7
The current organisational structures in sport mean that there is no overall responsibility to mandate...
Conclusion
The current organisational structures in sport mean that there is no overall responsibility to mandate minimum standards for concussion and head trauma or to assess whether protocols are followed. The system allows sports to be funded as long as their protocols look good on paper with no effort put into assessing how those protocols work in practice. The fact that concussion does not occur at high frequency within the elite sport community means that little effort is made to drive numbers down even further. This means that, some preventable brain injuries are suffered, with the potential for long-term consequences for individuals. (Paragraph 37) Concussion in sport 31
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government agrees with this recommendation. We will work with UK Sport and Sport England to explore how to ensure sports in receipt of public funding make use of the new set of shared concussion protocols which are to be produced. It will be left to sports to decide how best to approach this, taking into account their understanding of the likelihood and incidence of head injury in their sports, but we would encourage the use of the shared protocols the Government intends to commission (see recommendation 8). We would also recommend that sports funded by UK Sport take advantage of the expertise and resources of the English Institute for Sport and home nations equivalents where appropriate. By way of background, UK Sport does not have a regulatory role in its relationship with Olympic and Paralympic Sports. However, a large part of UK Sport’s investment into sports’ programmes includes medical provision and medical practitioners. Sports must submit information about all aspects of medical support and provision, including concussion as part of their funding applications to UK Sport. UK Sport also invests a significant amount of funding for medical services in the English Institute of Sport to ensure that our athletes receive first-class medical support and care. The English Institute of Sport follows an initial general protocol for all athletes who may suffer a concussion event. Management of this concussion will become more tailored to the individual protocols of the sport as their recovery process develops. British Cycling has introduced a clinical governance committee to oversee athletes’ medical teams and report to the Boards of their National Governing Bodies on medical matters, including concussion, where appropriate. We will encourage other sports to consider similar approaches over the course of the current Olympic/Paralympic cycle.