It also helped promote good health which reduced sickness caused to the economy (Houlihan & Green, 2011). .
Initiatives such as Sportsmark and Gold Star schemes were proposed to be awarded to schools that met specified criteria for the effective promotion of sport, this was shown to have a big impact on schools as they began to concentrate a bit more on their sport clubs, sporting facilities, and even trying to get the status of a specialist sports college e.g. Gateshead (Houlihan, 2000). In the 1980s Great Britain Sports Council attempted to retain a combined sports development strategy centred on the model of the sports development continuum, which theorised sport as comprising four tightly integrated elements known as foundation, participation, performance and excellence. While the model had its faults, it proved to be strong and to be an effective image of the interrelatedness of apparently different policies and interests. The model provided a degree of academic reason to the broad range of investment required to support 'mass participation' and 'elite development' which was key. Also to the range of contrasting and potentially aggressive organisations that required a share of Sports Council and later National Lottery funding. The model had the advantage of linking the interests of elite performers with those of the general participant. More importantly, the sports continuum provided support for a broader view of PE in schools than the government was prepared to accept (Houlihan, 2000).
Although mass participation and elite development are referred to being quite similar in the section dealing with further and higher education, the concern is with the potential contribution of universities to the development of elite talent. More importantly, the absence of any discussion of the role and contribution of local authorities in the area of mass participation is explicable only in terms of the persistent hostility of the Conservatives to local government.
