Less than 1 in 6 children in Birmingham meet physical activity guidelines…

According to a new National Childhood Inactivity survey, only 15.5 per cent of children in Birmingham meet the recommended Chief Medical Officer guidelines of at least 60 minutes of activity each day of the week.

'Active Lives – Children and Young People' was published by Sport England and local figures for Birmingham suggest as many as 142,200 young children need to do more exercise to meet recommended guidelines.

The national report also suggests that girls are less likely to be active as boys with activity levels reaching a peak at the end of primary school to the beginning of secondary school. The report also found that children from poorer families are less active than children from richer families.

Mike Chamberlain, Chief Executive of Sport Birmingham, said "Acknowledging the issue is the starting point and this new research will hopefully act as a wake-up call for policy makers to work with us and other agencies to find effective solutions so that activity is integrated into the daily lives of children much more so."

"As the strategic sports partnership in Birmingham we exist to use the power of sport and physical activity to improve lives, and we work directly to support schools and community organisations to bring inclusive and accessible sport and activity to the city's children and young people."

"We have a responsibility, therefore, to continue working with our schools to demonstrate the positive impact of building more activity into and around the school day, and with community clubs and organisations to help them offer as much choice as possible for all our young people"

Facing the challenge….

Sport Birmingham is directly addressing the challenge with a bigger focus than ever on young people, and will be launching the Daily Mile in Birmingham in December along with employing a Local Coordinator who will focus on supporting schools to adopt the Daily Mile as part of their school day. We will also continue to advise schools how to utilise their funding for sport and PE most effectively.

James Grinsted, the Senior Partnership Manager for Young People at Sport Birminghamsaid "The recently formed Birmingham Active Schools Alliance is a new partnership we have with Youth Sport Trust and Birmingham Education Partnership, and we have just launched a new pledge for schools to promote active healthy lifestyles. Additionally our website showcases many case studies of schools doing amazing work with PE and school sport enriching the curriculum and providing valuable life skills – included are Paget Primary who won a regional prize for 'Whole School Improvement through PE and Sport' at the recent West Midlands Community Sports Awards".

Being active outside of school…

The community focus will very much be on supporting clubs and any organisations wishing to provide sport and activity for youngsters; this will include identifying and training the best workforce in the community, supporting volunteers and activators. The Satellite Club programme will continue to expand and support school-club links, while M.A.D Birmingham offers young people the opportunity to get involved in physical activity and develop key life skills. There will be many more Community Games events in the region, working with Inspire Activity to bring sports taster days to communities in fun and family friendly Festivals.

For further information about projects and programmes for children in Birmingham please visit our youth sport section