For example, we haven’t seen a full recovery in positive attitudes towards sport and physical activity.
Across the five fundamental attitudes that make up physical literacy (enjoyment, confidence, competence, understanding and knowledge) we are seeing fewer children reporting positively.
This is a concern as we know the more positive children feel across these areas, the more likely they are to be active, but also because it is a reflection of a consistent reduction in broader wellbeing.
Overall happiness and life satisfaction are down – this is due to factors well beyond the world of sport and physical activity but it impacts on people’s activity habits.
Crucially too, done right, sport and physical activity can help.
We know that being active makes you happier and improves your wellbeing, so the more children we can help get active, the better the contribution we can make to their wellbeing.
We can’t do that alone though; our role is as much about convening others as it is in investing ourselves.
Without a really strong and successful system underpinning children’s participation – including teachers, schools, clubs, coaches, our network of partners and, of course, parents and carers – which puts children and their experiences at the heart of everything they do, we won’t ever make the progress we all want to see.
This is the central premise of Uniting the Movement, that no-one can deliver change alone, that it is only when we join up work, genuinely collaborate to improve the experience of sport and physical activity for children and young people and unashamedly work to address the inequalities in sport, will we achieve our overall mission.
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