Children’s Activities Critical to Reversing Pandemic Trends

Sport England has highlighted the critical role Children’s Activities has to play as the pandemic restrictions are lifted. Earlier in the year, their statistics showed that during the lockdown, under a third of children were participating in a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day. This means that 2.3 million children now fall into the ‘least active’ category, an increase of 200,000 from last year. Not only that, but less than half of all children are getting the government’s recommended hour of exercise a day.

Much of the reason for this is attributed to the restrictions due to Covid-19. While there is little doubt amongst scientists that these were necessary, the ongoing disruption is significant, with many venues still restricting the kind of activities they can host, along with the number of children who can attend. As the restrictions are eased, it is clear that children’s activity providers will have a major role to play over the course of the summer, getting children back into the habit of healthy, active lifestyles. This is already taking place, and in fact Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England's chief executive, praised the sector for their ‘monumental effort,’ along with parents and schools, to keep children playing sport.

The lifting of restrictions such as bubbles and requirements to self-isolate have been called for by Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children's Commissioner for England, who also advocates a ‘summer of fun’, in which schools make their premises available for sport, drama, and social activities.