Denise Lewis and Darren Campbell to join students for a protest at parliament over loss of funding for school sports partnerships
Pupils will today demand that a minister explain why the coalition has made funding for school sport in England one of the casualties of its cost-cutting.
Tim Loughton, the children's minister, will face tough questioning when he meets a delegation of students before a protest at parliament which is expected to draw up to 1,000 primary and secondary pupils and teachers from across England.
Olympic gold medallists Denise Lewis and Darren Campbell will also join the protest. Scores of elite British athletes past and present have written to the prime minister, David Cameron condemning education secretary Michael Gove's decision to stop the £162m-a-year funding for England's 450 school sports partnerships (SSPs) at the end of next March as "illogical" and likely to damage young people's health and fuel childhood obesity, in a move revealed by the Guardian last week.
Young people led by Debbie Foote, a 17-year-old pupil from Grantham in Lincolnshire, will also hand in a petition signed by more than half a million people at Downing Street later this morning which will add to the growing pressure on Cameron on the issue.
"This is devastating news, not only for young people today, but for the future generations who will miss out on the fantastic opportunities SSPs provide," said Foote. MPs on all sides are concerned about the potential impact of getting rid of SSPs.
Ed Miliband is expected to meet some of the protesters today, as well as Andy Burnham, Gove's opposite number, Ivan Lewis, the shadow culture, media and sport secretary and Tessa Jowell, the opposition spokeswoman on the 2012 Olympics.
"The government's decision to scrap SSPs has been met with shock and outrage by elite athletes, head teachers and young people," the trio said in a joint statement. "The peaceful protest is an indication of the strength of feeling that exists over the threat to the ability of young people to play the sport they love."
Cameron last week promised a rethink on Gove's decision, which has led to protests from across England. Three Whitehall departments are trying to find a solution to what has become an ongoing problem for the government: the Department for Education, Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Department of Health (DH). Officials from each ministry will meet today to try to finalise the details of a package that will end the protests but also not be seen as a total climbdown by ministers, including Cameron, who have criticised SSPs for not delivering enough competitive sport in schools. Gove insists that an annual "school Olympics" would be better at driving participation.
Critics have accused them of ignoring evidence of how the SSPs' work has led to a big increase in pupils' involvement in PE and competitive sport at schools and in matches between them.
Sources at No 10 have indicated that some new money will be found to help maintain school sport. Campaigners, including the Youth Sport Trust (YST), which set up the SSPs, estimate that at least £70m-£75m is needed to continue running even the most basic support service across England, and more if pupils are to have regular sport and be able to choose from a range of activities.
Cameron has had to take charge of efforts to defuse the row because Gove has been adamant that SSPs should no longer be funded, while both DCMS and the DH believe they do good work. But all three departments are thought to be ready to each provide some money towards either a continuation of SSPs or a new version of them.
Kelly Holmes, who won gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, is also concerned about Gove's move.