Children and young people’s overall activity levels were stable in the academic year 2022/23, and in line with those seen before the pandemic, according to a Sport England survey.
That means 47 per cent of children in England were meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guideline of taking part in an average of 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity a day.
However, significant inequalities remain, with black and Asian children and young people and those from the least affluent families still less likely to play sport or be physically active, and girls less likely to be active than boys.
Meanwhile, the number of children doing no activity at all has increased to more than 600,000, according to Sport England’s ‘Active lives children and young people survey’.
An LGA spokesperson said: “Councils have been working hard to prioritise public sport and leisure facilities for their communities and work in partnership with charities, the NHS and schools and use public resources to keep services going.
“However, without additional funding, councils will have to make increasingly tough decisions about which services to prioritise.
“We urgently need a strategic approach across government departments to identify and tackle the barriers to children and young people and the least active groups to increase their activity levels.”