ABSTRACT
This chapter primarily examines the rise of school sport partnerships (SSPs) through the use of the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) as a theoretical tool to analyse policy stability and change in physical education and school sport (PESS). It begins with a chronological account of the emergence of PESS as an increasingly key political policy concern in England from the 1990s onwards. The chapter also draws upon empirical data from an unpublished PhD thesis that analysed policy change for selected aspects of the PE, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) and PE and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP) strategies and in particular a case study that focused upon the creation of SSPs. It provides an update on the coalition government's decision in 2010 to end the funding of the SSP initiative in favour of the creation of a new School Games framework for competitive school sport in order to deliver the youth sport legacy promises of London 2012.
