Delivering subject content through nine life themes
The cost-of-living crisis is having a “significant impact” on participation levels in sport and physical activity, particularly for the most disadvantaged, according to a newly published report. Anything that negatively affects people’s ability to lead active lives should trigger alarm bells, not least because long-term health projections across the world are so dire. For example, more than nine million people in England will be living with major illness by 2040, according to the Health Foundation. We need to be thinking boldly about how to remove all obstacles to participation in sport and physical activity so that we enable people of all ages to become more active. It needs long-term thinking, ensuring that we encourage the children of today to develop healthy habits and a healthy mindset for life. Schools have a vital role to play in helping achieve this.
The rising cost of living and its impact on sport and physical activity has been produced by Sport England in conjunction with Sheffield Hallam University. It examines the impact of the cost of living not just on participation levels but also on wider aspects of the sport sector, such as clubs and community sports groups, the sport economy and the sector workforce.
The report notes that, though participation levels for both adults and children have returned roughly to pre-pandemic levels, inequalities persist across gender, ethnicity, income and location.
And one of the report’s key findings is that people from the most deprived areas and from lower socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to say their levels of physical activity have been negatively affected by cost-of-living increases.
There is evidence that people are adapting their behaviour, for example by cancelling gym and sports memberships or substituting paid activities with free alternatives such as walking or cycling. Parents and carers say that they are making changes to how their children engage in sport and physical activity in a similar way.
The report says that these behavioural changes have become entrenched and are unlikely to reverse until household finances improve. It also notes that cost pressures, especially from rising energy prices, have affected sports club finances which in turn has made access less affordable for some, and that increases in utility costs have led some facilities providers to reduce sessions and increase fees.
The report builds on previous work done by Sport England. Its most recent annual survey of children’s activity levels (published in December 2022) found that less than 50% of children were 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.
The survey also noted the impact of affluence on activity levels. Those from low-affluence families are less likely to be active than those from high-affluence families, and children and young people in the most deprived places in the country had not yet seen activity levels recover to what they were before the Covid pandemic.
We have argued elsewhere – here, for example – about the short-sightedness, both economically and in health terms, of cutbacks to facilities such as public swimming pools. Perhaps the most short-sighted policy of all, however, would be a failure to tackle declining participation in sport and physical activity by children and young people.
We cannot be complacent about this. The charity Youth Sport Trust said in August that the amount of PE and sport in secondary schools in England had fallen by more than 12% since the 2012 London Olympics, something it described as “a matter of immediate national concern”. There is also evidence that girls’ participation in sport and physical activity declines as they progress through their teenage years.
Life-Based Learning (LBL) is an approach to education and development for children and young people in which the life challenges that we all face, now and in the future, become the focus of a fully rounded, life-based approach to learning.
LBL recognises the importance of children developing habits and a healthy mindset that they will carry with them into adult life. It emphasises participation in sport, physical activity and outdoor play to help children grow up physically and mentally healthy. The corollary is that we need to tackle whatever obstacles, attitudes and biases are directly causing or contributing to a reduction in participation levels.
In our blog Supporting PE in schools we discussed the need to use high-profile events like the 2023 women’s football world cup to promote participation in sport and physical activity, in and out of school:
Politicians and other leaders often pepper their speeches with phrases like ‘legacy planning’ and ‘building for the future’. But, as we have asked before, how do we ensure that all the fine words about legacy don’t turn into empty promises, with plans quietly shelved or downgraded when difficult choices have to be made? How do we use high-profile events like world cups to promote participation in sport and physical activity, in and out of school, as part of a coordinated, ambitious and long-term public-health strategy?
Image at the head of this article by Kris from Pixabay.
