Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to develop programmes promoting active lifestyles for children and young people as recommended in the article by Sarah MacQuarrie and Alexandra Hennessey entitled Transforming children and young people’s futures through PE, school sport, and physical activity, published on 12 February 2025.

This government values physical education (PE) and sport as a way to improve not only the health, but the wellbeing and lives of all children and young people. Existing government-funded programmes look to address this with the primary PE and sport premium and the School Games Organisers.

To address specific barriers, we have recently launched an open procurement for a new grant programme for up to 3 financial years (from April 2025 to March 2028 at up to £300,000 per year) to develop and deliver a programme that improves and increases PE, school sport and physical activity opportunities for pupils with SEND. The inclusive education hub, funded by the department through the inclusion 2024 programme is an online platform of bespoke resources to help schools make PE and sport more inclusive.