Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help increase levels of physical activity in (a) pre-school, (b) primary school and (c) secondary school children.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published the Get Active strategy in 2023, which aims to build a more active nation. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/get-active-a-strategy-for-the-future-of-sport-and-physical-activity#Details. Central to this is a focus on ensuring that children establish a lifetime of engagement with sport and physical activity. The strategy sets an ambition that all children should meet the UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines on physical activity, with a target of getting 1 million more active children by 2030.

In July 2023 the Department for Education published an update to the cross-government School Sport and Activity Action Plan (SSAAP) which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-sport-and-activity-action-plan. The plan sets out actions to help all pupils take part in sport and do more physical activity. The update builds on the government’s announcement in March 2023 that set out new ambitions for equal access to physical education (PE) and sport for girls and boys, 2 hours of PE a week alongside over £600 million funding for the Primary PE and Sport Premium (in academic years 2023/24 and 2024/25) and the School Games Organiser Network.

The department will shortly be publishing new non-statutory guidance on PE and sport, exemplifying practice from primary and secondary schools. In recognition of the importance of young children being physically active, physical development is one of the three prime areas of learning as set out in the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage framework that all early years providers in England must follow. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.