With one in six deaths in the UK being associated with physical inactivity it seems incredulous that tackling something as manageable as inactivity crisis has not been made more of a priority. Despite the government claiming that their policy on sport has been “to get more people in sport” for more than a decade, it is impossible to deem such policies a date – the UK is 20% less active than in the 1960s and projected to be 35% less active by 2030. The statistics lays bare the scale of the task ahead in reversing this worrying trend.
It is indisputable that those who are active in their childhood are more likely to remain active as they grow older, demonstrating why prioritising youth participation in sport is fundamental to tackling the inactivity crisis. The importance of prioritising youth sport cannot be overstated, with increased physical activity associated with widespread benefits on an individual’s mental and physical health, reducing the risk of dementia by up to 30%, cardiovascular disease by up to 35% and all-cause mortality by 33%.
The impacts of increased inactivity amongst children are becoming clear, with the rate of obesity amongst children in the UK rising steadily over the last 15 years, regardless of how vocal the government has been in pledging to tackle the nation’s health and obesity since the pandemic – the 2023 government report concluded that 37.7% of year six age children obese or overweight, up significantly from 31.6% in 2006.
It is clear that young people are not physically active enough, with just 47% of children meeting the UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of taking part in an average of 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity a day. Given that the majority of the nation’s children are not active enough, it can hardly be a surprise that tackling child obesity rates has proven so difficult. It is imperative that more be done to instil the importance of living an active and healthy lifestyle from a young age through the promotion of sport amongst young children and in schools, a mentality which should carry through to adulthood after being instilled early on. The evidence is clear that those who are active in their childhood are significantly more likely to remain activity for the duration of their life, and vice versa. The current generation of children is collectively unhealthy, a trend which if continued over time will only increase future pressure on an already struggling NHS, for whom physical inactivity is estimated as costing £0.9bn a year. With waiting lists already reaching record highs of 7.5 million in 2023, the importance of acting upon something as controllable as inactivity.
While the causes of obesity are complex and multifactorial, it is driven by an imbalance in energy intake and energy expenditure. Given that physical activity is the most modifiable factor of energy expenditure and is responsible for roughly 25% of total energy expenditure, it clearly has significant power to impact the energy balance equation and in turn one’s likelihood of becoming obese.
Furthermore, beyond the physical health benefits, the endorphins released by your body in response to exercise interact with receptors in your brain and have been proven to help ward off feelings of anxiety and depression, reduce stress, boost self-esteem and improve sleep. When we live in a time where 18% of 7 to 16-year-olds have a probable mental disorder, and mental health crisis care services are underfunded and understaffed, increasing activity has the potential to reduce strain on the NHS across multiple departments, as well as having multifaceted benefits on both children and society as a whole.
An increase in sports participation would also likely have benefits for educational attainment – higher cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with higher brain function, improvements in cognitive control of working memory and levels of concentration, and consequently with higher results in tests, demonstrating the potential for the positive impact physical activity can have on an individual’s education. This further highlights the importance of investing in youth sport and the scope for improvements on an individual’s quality of life through an amalgamation of the aforementioned factors.
While the need for action appears to have been recognised at least to an extent by the government, which has implemented investment plans, such as the ongoing PE and sport premium funding established as a legacy to the 2012 Olympics, and the pledge in March 2014 of £150m a year for primary schools’ sport funding guaranteed until 2020. And yet, 10 years on from their implementation, 4,000 hours of PE were lost at state schools over the past year, part of a wider trend of decline since the 2012 Olympics over which period there has been a 12% drop in school hours dedicated to sport – the plans can only be considered as a failure. This negative trend has been described as “a matter of immediate national concern” by the Youth Sport Trust and should serve as the impetus for change, as it is irrefutable that the current plans are not working, and action needs to be taken to halt and reverse the decline – failure to do so is likely to have long term impacts on both the NHS and on individuals in terms of their physical health, mental health and educational attainment.
With this in mind, in tackle the inactivity crisis facing Britain it is clear that the government needs to do more to boost sport participation and activity levels amongst children, Increasing accessibility to all sports to all children. An acknowledgement of the far-reaching potential sport has to benefit an individual’s wellbeing academically, physically and mentally is a necessity to avoid at all costs allowing PE provision to decline as a result of core subjects being given additional time, a needless and dangerous scenario which 38% of teachers have said they felt is the case. Greater provision of compulsory sport in school hours, as well as the funding and resources to increase accessibility of after-school sports clubs is an absolute necessity.
While attempts have been made to show an interest in children’s sport the issue lies in the government directly contradicting itself with the advice and the policy they are issuing – while recommending children should take part in at least seven hours of sport a week, they are simultaneously stating in their own school sport and activity action plan that they intend to provide support for teachers and schools to deliver just two hours of high-quality PE a week. The need for a new approach and commitment to making physical activity a priority not just through words, but by implementing policies and funding to ensure children can readily access the levels of physical activity they are recommending is unquestionable.
Without a radical and committed new plan, the UK faces falling further into an inactivity and obesity ‘epidemic’, a major concern given it already ranks fourth in Europe for having the most overweight and obese adults at present.
Finn O’Hare is currently doing work experience at Bright Blue. Views expressed in this article are those of the author, not necessarily those of Bright Blue. [Image: Jeffrey F Lin]
