I wrote a piece last January as we went into Lockdown three and schools closed once again, about the physical activity levels of our children and young people. Sadly, 12 months on, whilst our schools are re-opening after the Christmas break (fingers crossed!) the situation is very similar in terms of there still being significant issues in ensuring that children are getting enough physical activity within their day.  

The Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines state that 60 minutes per day is what our children and young people should be getting, but recent data suggests that only 44.6% of children in England are achieving that, and that there is significant regional and socio-economic variation. For example, in Sunderland, one of the local authority areas that we work with at Rise, the latest statistics only had 23.8% of children achieving the recommended 60 minutes per day on average, and the national data also shows that those from the least affluent families remain the least active. We know that the North East features heavily when looking at the indices of deprivation, and so many North East children are impacted by a multitude of inequalities. 

But this is not just about children and young people not moving enough for their physical health. The latest Sport England Active Lives survey for CYP, which covered the 2020-2021 academic year, showed that not only were physical activity levels down, but there was also a worrying decline in young people’s mental health and confidence and increased feelings of loneliness, with more than one in 10 young people reporting feeling lonely either often or always. The role that sport and physical activity can play in supporting mental health and wellbeing are well documented, and so it’s essential for both physical and mental health reasons that as a society, we find ways to support our young people to move more. 

Due to the above issues, I’m delighted that here at Rise we are working with colleagues nationally to support the roll out of the Creating Active Schools Framework. The framework was developed by an international group of experts to promote a whole systems approach to school improvement. It seeks to sustainably embed physical activity throughout a school so that everyone understands its benefits and can easily implement it in their practice. It makes physically activity the responsibility of everyone in the school’s community, not just that of the PE lead or coach. 

In addition, it was interesting to see the comments within the recent House of Lords Select Committee Report on a National Plan for Sport & Recreation that recommended that a new ministerial role responsible for sport, health and wellbeing sit within the Department for Health & Social Care, reflecting the vital importance that sport and physical activity can play in improving the health and wellbeing of the nation.  The report also recommends that PE should become a core national curriculum subject in schools. “The Committee found that PE is not valued highly enough in schools with inadequate teacher training time focused on PE and physical literacy, particularly for primary school teachers. The Committee were shocked to hear that many primary school teachers receive only a few hours’ training focused on PE during their teacher training courses.” 

Whilst I personally welcome such recommendations, we must all also recognise and understand the ‘here and now’ issues of our inactive children and young people and lend our weight and investment to addressing this growing problem (and thereby also ensure that in 12 months’ time, as we tip into 2023, I’m not compelled to write another similar piece..).