Kate Ellis, Information Officer at the British Heart Foundation National Centre, blogs about the BHF's early years manifesto.
“91% of two to four year olds not active enough to be healthy” was the headline that shocked the nation as we released our manifesto for physical activity in the early years.
Yet this statistic originates from the Health Survey for England in 2012. So why has it taken so long to capture attention?
From a media perspective I can only speculate that it’s due to a two minute media slot to cover the whole Health Survey for England in which case it’s forgivable that they overlook the statistic for 2-4 year olds. However, our concern is that the political landscape shows similarities. A string of recent physical activity policies and frameworks place too little if any focus on physical activity in the early years. This is why we’re calling on all politicians to embed early years physical activity into all relevant policies giving all children access to high quality activity opportunities. We can only hope that new strategies, eg, the soon to be released childhood obesity strategy will include physical activity in under-fives.
The current “underrepresentation” is worrying because the evidence base is growing rapidly to show that getting the little ones active is vital for healthy development. So far we know that it enhances brain development, improves bone and muscular health, promotes social and emotional wellbeing and helps to maintain a healthy weight.
So far, I have missed maybe the most important aspect for our sector which is the evidence indicating that active children become active adults. Getting our young children active will help them develop a lifelong love of being active and is one of the strongest cases we have as a long term solution to the inactivity crisis.
Once we have our youngest children hooked on activity, they will keep coming back to our leisure centres, sport clubs, parks and greenspace for life. Surely that’s an investment worth making?
We’re calling policy makers to embed early years into relevant policies. Please support our manifesto to give every child the #BestStart in life through access to high quality physical activity opportunities.
Find out more about the manifesto here.
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