Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Report

According to Sport England’s latest Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, children and young people’s activity levels have remained stable.

The report shows that 47.8% of children meet the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of taking part in an average of 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity daily.

However, the report also highlights the long-term impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic on children and young people’s relationship with sport and physical activity.

In particular, children who were in nursery to school Year 4 (ages 4-9) when the pandemic struck in 2020 have been particularly disadvantaged. 

This age group, in school Years 3-8 (ages 7-13) during the 2023-24 academic year, remain less likely to have positive attitudes towards activity and a lower sense of opportunity.  

The local breakdown of statistics has yet to be released, so we do not know how Sussex has faired.

However, the report has found at a national level, children in school Year 7 are less likely to be able to swim 25 metres unaided (70% can) than older children could at this age. 77% of children in school Year 11 in 2023-24 could when they were in school Year 7 in 2017-18.  

Sport England has warned if this group doesn’t catch up, a generation of children may not learn this vital life skill and, subsequently, may be less likely to introduce their own children to swimming in adult life.  

The results also show stubborn inequalities remain, with girls and children from less affluent families still less likely to be active than boys and children from more affluent families. 

Children from Asian, Black and other ethnic backgrounds are still the least likely to be active.

Andy Taylor, CEO for the Active Partnerships National Organisation, said: “Today’s results will hopefully highlight to the Government that, although there are obviously competing demands for funding, now is the time to invest in young people and their future. 

“There is clearly a need to protect short-term funding for PE, school sport and physical activity, including the PE and School Sport Premium, the Opening School Facilities (OSF) programme and the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, all of which will I’m sure have contributed to maintaining current activity levels for children and young people.

“In particular, we have recently highlighted in letters to the Government the incredibly positive impact that the OSF programme that we deliver with a consortium of partners, has been having on the lives of young people across England. 

“Through distributing funding from the Department for Education, more than 236,000 young people have taken part in the programme through more than 1,600 schools. A total of 96,151 sessions have been delivered so far.

“However, it is clear from the report that children are active outside of a school setting too, so there is a need to continue looking at the opportunities that young people have to be active in their local community. 

“Our Active Partnerships, who are immersed in their local places with an expert knowledge of local people, communities, stakeholders and systems, need to be at the heart of this work.

“We would also welcome the opportunity to work with the Government and other partners to create a new long-term cross-sector plan to ensure that together we provide as many opportunities as possible for young people to be active both inside and outside of school.”

You can read more about the results from the Active Lives survey on the Sport England website.