Challenging childhood obesity one step at a time

The Generation Inactive report addresses the lack of tracking and measurement of children’s physical activity and fitness within primary schools and examines the ways in which the least active generation in history can be encouraged to become more healthy and active. The report was produced using extensive primary and secondary data alongside interviews with senior teachers, experienced children’s activity providers and leading academics.
    
To gain unique primary data ukactive sent freedom of information orders to over 200 primary schools and primary academies in England to explore the steps they took to record and measure children’s fitness and activity levels, from sophisticated measurements of cardiorespiratory fitness and motor skills to basic tracking of time spent in PE. Some of the results gathered were found to fall far short of expectations, and emphasise the need for government and children’s activity stakeholders to continue to support schools when it comes to promoting and assessing children’s activity and fitness.

The report revealed that less than half of schools surveyed were aware of how much physical activity was actually done within PE lessons.
    
Generation Inactive makes a range of calls to government, head teachers and the activity sector itself. Key recommendations include: extending the national child measurement programme to also measure fitness as a slim child does not necessarily mean a fit and healthy child, rebranding the ‘PE & Sport Premium’ as the ‘Physical Activity & PE Premium’ to address the core notion of inactivity, and recommending that head teachers take a ‘whole day’ approach to physical activity by engraining it throughout the entire school day.

Reaction to the report
Both before and after the report’s official launch, the reaction and interest in the report has been largely positive and wide ranging. Our findings were featured in The Guardian, BBC, Sky News, Good Morning Britain and a host of other national and regional publications and media outlets. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and other leading stakeholders supported the publication. The reaction from Parliament has also been very positive with Luciana Berger MP tabling a question to the Department of Health that explicitly quoted the Generation Inactive report.
    
ukactive chair Baroness Grey-Thompson’s speech at the launch event acknowledged that there might be some caution among some stakeholders and individuals around the measurement of children’s fitness. The organisation’s view on this is really quite simple; ukactive want to work with all who share our vision of an active childhood. But we’re clear that the evidence shows that measurement is not a dirty word. Far from it – measurement and the understanding of the effectiveness of practice which measurement brings – is the first step on the road to getting this right.
    
ukactive are certainly not calling for invasive testing methods, dividing children into groups for fitness, or explicitly telling children that they are unfit. What we are calling for is the safe, non-invasive measurement of children’s fitness in a way that is fun, inspiring and engaging for children and young people, informed by the academic community but shaped by young people themselves. Goals should be provided and improvement, rather than overall performance, rewarded.

This concept is supported by the academic and health-improvement community, by parents, Parliamentarians, providers and has the overwhelming support of stakeholders. The question now is, how do we make it work?

Measuring fitness in the right way can add vital knowledge on what works for delivery, provide much needed understanding of the health of our children’s hearts and allows us to understand where our children figure internationally. We should not expect it to solve the problem of children’s inactivity or poor fitness levels but rather enable us to understand the extent of the problem so we can take effective action and assess when progress is being made.

What next for ukactive?
‘Generation Inactive’ has put the issue of children’s activity and fitness back on the national agenda and it has been encouraging to see Nike’s recent ‘Designed to move: Active Schools’ report which shares ukactive’s call for a whole school day approach to physical activity, bringing it to life by providing practical guidance for school leaders on how they can make their school and active one.
    
ukactive will continue to engage Parliamentarians and interested stakeholders on the report’s recommendations.  We will work closely with Ofsted, the Department for Education and a broad range of stakeholders with an interest in this agenda because it will take our collective efforts to raise awareness of children’s inactivity and plant the seeds of change required to give this generation a healthier future.

Further information
www.ukactive.com