The UK Needs a Comprehensive National Policy for the Provision of Child Centred Physical Education

The Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine (FSEM) supports the need for an increase in physical activity for children in the UK.

This issue has been highlighted today (10 December 2013) by one of the Faculty’s Fellows, Dr Richard Weiler in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in an article titled ‘Is the lack of physical activity strategy for children complicit mass child neglect’. The FSEM recognises that there is a need, not only for a national physical activity strategy for children, but a national physical activity strategy for all adults and children in the UK.

The FSEM fully supports existing government guidelines for physical activity in children and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on Promoting Physical Activity for Children and Young People link . Strong evidence also exists that physical activity can boost academic performance in children and young people. A research article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association titled Physical Activity and Performance at School concludes that ‘Participation in physical activity is positively related to academic performance in children.’

However, the FSEM also recognises that there is a lack of strategic management at government level to ensure that these guidelines are implemented across our schools and communities and is supporting its Fellows in a call for funding of a comprehensive national policy for the provision of child centred physical education.

Statement released by the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine UK 10 December 2013