Young People and Sport in England: A
Survey of Young People and PE Teachers
Synopsis:
This report
of the findings from the second national survey of
‘Young People and Sport’ provides both some good news
and some bad news for sport in England. The good news is
that among secondary school-aged young people in
particular the range of opportunities and levels of
sporting involvement remain impressively high. Over the
last five years sports like cricket, tennis and rugby,
although not seeing significant increases in
participation, have at least held their own and there
are no signs of these sports being ‘in crisis’ as far as
young people’s participation is concerned.
We have also witnessed significant growth in the
popularity of football and, importantly, started to see
a growth in participation by girls, which may herald the
opening up of a major new sporting opportunity in what
has historically been a male dominated sport.
Additional good news is the significant increase in
extra-curricular sporting opportunities that have become
available to secondary school-aged young people over the
last five years, providing a basis for optimism that we
have well and truly put behind us the serious declines
that were witnessed during the early 1980s. The other
welcome finding is the continuing and seemingly growing
contribution of organised clubs where young people can
take part in sport, whether this be through what we
would traditionally know as a voluntary sports club or
through youth clubs, church clubs, uniformed groups or
clubs organised in local leisure centres.
The good news is tempered, however, by the worrying
decline in the time available for PE in our primary
schools. Being physically active is something that comes
naturally to young people and yet over a third of our 6-
to 8-year-olds are doing less than an hour a week of PE.
Even where PE is being provided in primary schools, it
is usually with teachers who do not have a specialist PE
qualification and do not have access to good quality
sports facilities.
Within the general decline in time for PE there is a
specific concern about the declining levels of
participation in swimming in the school curriculum
particularly given the fact that learning to swim is the
one aspect of PE for which there is a National
Curriculum requirement.
The decline in PE curriculum time in primary schools
will affect children from less well off backgrounds the
most. These are the young people who will be least
likely to be able to take up the opportunities offered
by extra-curricular and club sport. The costs to
individuals and society of this declining commitment to
primary school PE may not be felt now. They will,
however, be measured in the years to come in terms of
heart disease and increasing obesity, osteoporosis and
stroke, and levels of vandalism and anti-social
behaviour, that lifelong involvement in sport may have
negated. In addition of course we must not forget the
potential waste of sporting talent and missed medal
opportunities that will see us continue to lose ground
to our international sporting rivals.
The evidence provided by this research is timely and
important. It will assist Sport England in further
developing its policies and programmes (in partnership
with others) to ensure that they are targeted and
designed in a way that most effectively increases
sporting opportunities for all young people. It will
also provide an additional benchmark against which we
can measure progress over the coming years.
Beyond this we anticipate that the findings from this
survey will help focus attention and raise the profile
of the issues which face young people and sport in
England and encourage those agencies and individuals who
can really ‘make a difference’ to unite behind a common
agenda to make sport for all young people a reality
rather than an aspiration.
Trevor Brooking
Chair, Sport England
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