Our response to Active Lives Children and Young People Survey 2023-24

This year’s report reveals that inactivity levels for disabled children and young people remain the same as last year. Nearly a third (28.8%) of disabled children who took part in the survey are doing less than 30 minutes of physical activity each day. Findings also show that children with two or more inequality characteristics are the least active. An example of a child with two inequality characteristics would be a disabled girl.

Addressing the unchanged activity levels and inequality challenges for disabled children and young people requires a joint approach across the sector and beyond. We support Sport England’s collective action to drive meaningful change on children’s development and engagement with physical activity.

Responding to the findings, Annabel Storer-Carter, Research and Insight Manager at Activity Alliance, said:

“Every child deserves the chance to be active in the way they choose. We know the physical and mental benefits of being active  are immeasurable. It provides children with opportunities to be healthy, make friends, have fun, and be part of a community.

"The trends and insight for disabled children and young people are concerning with levels of inactivity remaining unchanged over the past five years. The fact that one in three disabled children are missing out on the benefits of an active lifestyle shows that there is still work to be done.

“It is important to recognise that while the survey provides valuable insights, it only captures the experience of disabled children in mainstream schools. This does not fully reflect the inequalities we know exist. As the leading voice of disabled people in sports and activities, we continue to work tirelessly to support others to tackle inequalities. Through the training and resources on our learning hub and website, we are equipping educators and communities to embed inclusive practices.

“Working collectively is  key to drive meaningful change and see positive shifts in children and young people being active. Our new strategy, We all belong, aims to address the major barriers that disabled children and adults face when trying to be active or work in sports and activities. We are dedicated to working with Sport England, our partners and disabled people to build a movement for change and improve opportunities to be active.”

Activity levels for disabled children

Inactivity levels remain significantly unchanged for the fifth year. 28.8% of disabled children were less active (doing less than 30 minutes of physical activity each day) this year, compared to 27.3% of non-disabled children. This means nearly a third of disabled children are continuing to miss out on the well-established benefits of being active.

Similar to the past two years, and like non-disabled children, disabled children were most likely to be inactive in school years 3-4 (ages 7-9). Additionally, one in 10 (11.2%) disabled children report not participating in at least two different activities on any day of the week.

Impairment differences 

Similar to last year, just over half (51.4%) of disabled children with three or more impairments or long-term health conditions are active. The data does not show a correlation between being less active and the number of impairments. However, there are often challenges with inclusive research for large-scale surveys and data is not included for children from Special Education Needs (SEN) schools.  

Among disabled children and young people, there are variations in activity levels based on impairment types. Those with visual impairments (54.8%) are the most active and those with impairments related to ‘something else because of disability or special need’ (31.5%) are the most likely to be less active.  

Disabled children with three or more impairments are more likely to report lower life satisfaction. The findings show an association between the number of impairments and reduced life satisfaction.  

Please contact the National Disability Sports Organisations for support in engaging with children with specific impairments. 

Attitudes and wellbeing 

The research shows that disabled children are less likely than non-disabled children to feel positive about enjoyment, confidence, competence, understanding, and knowledge in sports and physical activity. While last year saw significant improvements in enjoyment, confidence, and competence, no changes were reported this year.  

Since the survey began, more disabled children now feel they have opportunities to be active. However, their perceptions of opportunity are consistently lower than those of non-disabled children (39.6% vs 50.4%).  

Disabled children continue to report lower mental wellbeing scores than their non-disabled peers. Positively, life satisfaction and life worthwhileness among disabled children have significantly improved since last year. From our latest social value report of disabled people being active, we know there are substantial wellbeing benefits for disabled adults meeting ‘active’ guidelines. Similar wellbeing benefits are likely achievable for disabled children and young people being active.  

Loneliness levels are not reported in this year’s data tables. Last year, disabled children and young people were more than four times more likely to feel lonely ‘often or always’ compared to non-disabled children and young people (26.1% vs 6.1%). We know from insight that being active can be beneficial to addressing loneliness levels.  

Types of activities  

Participation is measured as sport and physical activity taken part in over the past seven days. 91.4% of 122,480 respondents completed an activity, with ‘sporting activities’ (79.8%) the most common ‘broad activity’ followed by ‘active play and informal activities’ (62.4%). There has been no significant change in levels compared with last year. While the type of activity data includes demographic details of age and gender, it does not detail disability. To repeat last year’s findings, the data for ‘types of activity’ doesn’t include any Paralympic or disability-specific sports or exercise, such as goalball or boccia. The types of activities included at mainstream and special schools will vary and this data does not capture types of activities in special educational needs (SEN) schools or Paralympic or disability-specific sports. 

Volunteering 

Like last year, nearly half (46.9%) of children and young people in school years 5-11 volunteered to support exercise and sports in the last year. Volunteering rates are slightly lower for disabled children (45.9%) compared with non-disabled children (48.7%). 

The rate of volunteering to support sport and exercise among disabled children and young people tends to decrease with an increase in impairments or long-term health conditions. Half of disabled children with one impairment (50.3%), four in 10 disabled children with two impairments (46.6%), and four in 10 disabled children with three impairments (42.8%) have volunteered in the past year.   

Survey findings showed disabled children and young people with ‘breathing (includes asthma)’ impairments (50.2%) tended to be the most likely when volunteering in exercise and sports in the last year, and children with ‘co-ordination (includes balance problems)’ impairments (37.3%) the least likely. Disabled children with breathing and visual impairments report a significant increase in volunteering rates compared with last year.  

Levels of volunteering to support exercise and sports tends to decrease in disabled children and young people with age, with disabled children in school years 5-6 more likely to volunteer than disabled children in school years 9-11 (65.5% vs 38.5%). 

Spectating 

Attendance of sporting events was measured by children and young people (in school years 5-11) attending at least two live sports events over the last 12 months. Overall, 44.6% of children and young people attended at least two live sports events, with no change from last year. Disabled children (40.9%) were less likely to have attended at least two live sports events in the last 12 months compared with non-disabled children (46.1%), with no significant change from last year. Disabled children and young people were less likely to have attended at least two live sports events in the last 12 months as the number of long-term limiting impairments increased. There was a significant increase (4.3%) in attendance for children and young people living with three or more long-term limiting impairments when compared with last year.  

Whilst there is no significant change compared with last year’s data, the likelihood of disabled children and young people attending at least two live sports events decreased with age. Over four in 10 (45.2%) disabled children in school years 5-6 attended at least two live sports events, compared with 40.44% in years school 7-8, and 39.2% in school years 9-11 respectively. 

When considering impairment type, over four in 10 disabled children and young people with a ‘gives pain (e.g. hypermobility)’ impairment (43.1%) were the most likely to attend at least two live sports events in the last 12 months, and one third of disabled children and young people with a ‘co-ordination (includes balance problems)’ impairment (33.2%) the least likely to attend. Compared with last year, there was a significant increase in attendance change for disabled children with ‘breathing (includes asthma)’ (4.5% increase), ‘gives pain (e.g. hypermobility)’ (8.7% increase), and ‘how you feel/mental health’ (3.8% increase) impairments. 

Other inequalities

Like last year’s results, levels of activity are seen to reduce with an increase in the number of inequality characteristics. Children and young people with two or more inequality characteristics are the most likely to be less active (36.3%) and least likely to be active (40.1%) than children and young people with one or no inequality characteristics. Sport England recently launched the Inequalities Metric to better understand what affects and impacts activity levels.

Income deprivation is a factor affecting children and young people's activity levels. The data shows that children and young people from the most deprived places are more likely to be inactive (30.8%) than those from the least deprived places (27.7%), and less likely to be active (47.44%) than children and young people from the least deprived places (49.1%). From our ‘My Active Future’ report, we know that parents of disabled children in lower socioeconomic groups find it more difficult to get their children involved in sports and physical activity.

Other persistent inequalities from last year are girls and other genders; Black, Asian and children from other ethnicities (with Black and Asian girls most likely to be less active); and children from less affluent families remain less active than their counterparts.

This shows the continued importance to consider social and demographic factors in addition to a child’s impairment or health condition.

About the survey

This report presents data from the Active Lives Children and Young People Survey for 2023-24. Data is presented for children and young people in school Years 1-11 (ages five to 16) in England. It was collected from over 120,000 children from over 1,600 schools via an online survey.

The results are compared with the academic year 2022-23, which was the first full year where schools were not significantly disrupted due to COVID-19 or its variants.

The research represents children and young people from mainstream schools only, and doesn’t capture data from those attending special educational needs (SEN) schools. While most disabled children or children with long-term health conditions attend mainstream schools, this approach misses out children and young people with more complex needs. So, the report and data fall short of representing and understanding the activity levels and experiences of all disabled children and young people. 

Resources

We continue to support organisations and people who deliver activities to support disabled children and young people to be active. Here are some useful resources:

• Our Learning Hub provides access to CIMSPA accredited learning opportunities and courses to empower everyone with practical tools and creative ideas to make sport, activity and communication more inclusive.
• The Inclusive Education Hub has essential resources for education practitioners to support and improve inclusive physical education and school sport delivery.
• Our Inclusive PE activity cards provide teachers and school staff with downloadable, inclusive activity ideas to increase knowledge, skills, and confidence.
• Youth Sport Trust’s Inclusion Live week offers best practice for the inclusion of young people with SEND in PE, school sport, and physical activity.
• Activity finding websites such as Every Body Moves directs people to home-based and local inclusive activities and clubs within their local area and online.
• BBC Super Movers for Every Body offers a host of exciting free online curriculum-linked resources to engage disabled children and those with special educational needs in sport and activity.
• Paralympics GB’s Equal Play campaign calls for the UK Government to commit to ensuring every child has the same access to PE at school.
• The Chief Medical Officer guidelines recommend that disabled children and young people do 120-180 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic activity per week, plus three strength and balance activities per week. A coproduced infographic of the key messages and benefits is available.

More research or insight

Please get in touch with the research team at Activity Alliance to discuss the findings: research@activityalliance.org.uk