A new report has called for care experienced children and young people to have better access to physical activity.
The report, launched at the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Conference in Bradford in September, warns they are “a hidden group” whose needs and experiences are often overlooked in physical activity policy and provision.
The LGA is calling on the Government to prioritise supporting care-experienced children and young people in the forthcoming physical activity strategy.
It says Sport England, the Department for Education and Department for Culture, Media and Sport should expand their existing data collections to include and track physical activity levels and experiences of care-experienced children and young people.
The call for data collection forms part of a series of recommendations set out in ‘Guidance on improving opportunities for physical activity for care-experienced children and young people’. This provides information, advice and examples of good practice on how councils and their partners can best support them to be physically active.
The report was commissioned by the LGA and written by the children’s charities Coram and Stormbreak.
Cllr Julie Jones-Evans, Chair of the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Committee, said: “As corporate parents, looking after children and young people is one of the most important jobs that councils do.
“Supporting care-experienced children and young people to be physically active is an important part of these corporate parenting responsibilities.