Swindon Advertiser Column: We Need A More Active Solution To Tackling Childhood Obesity

As many readers will already know, I am passionate about the power of sport. Not only does it keep people healthy & active, but it has an amazing potential to change people’s lives, bring communities together and teach our young people important life skills.

Here in Swindon, we have lots of fantastic groups offering sporting activities to people of all ages and ability. From tots to teens at the brilliant Draycott Sports Camp, to walking football & netball. From croquet for people with Parkinson’s, to football sessions run by Mind, the mental health charity. I have been privileged to visit all of these groups and see just how important they are for individuals.

However whilst we are rightly seeing sport become much more inclusive, including at the very top with the awe-inspiring Paralympians, as well as women’s football & cricket regularly featured on TV; figures have shown that 77% of boys & 80% of girls of primary school age, are not meeting the national recommended level of activity each day. This coincides with the shocking figures which show that 1 in 3 children are leaving primary school overweight or obese.

With this public health concern, the Government rightly published its Childhood Obesity Strategy last year, which focused on reducing the amount of sugar in food and drinks, while investing millions of pounds into school sport. I have been doing lots of work behind the scenes in Parliament where I have repeatedly called for this money to be spent on activities outside of the normal school day – in particular to open up school sports facilities after-school and in the holidays to allow voluntary groups, teams and organisations to put on extra activities for young people. This would provide more opportunities for youngsters to be active, on top of their normal PE lessons at school.

Since the strategy was published last year, I have been critical of its implementation. The money has so far been provided directly to schools who have been able to purchase new sporting equipment and update facilities. Whilst this is fantastic, schools don’t actually have the ability to increase the time youngsters spend on physical activity, as they are restricted with an already full National Curriculum between the hours of 9-3. Therefore, if we are actually going to see more activity, the focus should be outside of school hours.

Unfortunately, health ministers seem to be forgetting how important physical activity is in tackling childhood obesity. Instead they believe that a ban on junk food advertising before the watershed is vitally important. I don’t believe this is the answer and made it clear to Ministers in the House of Commons this week that more needed to be done to increase physical activity, rather than token gestures where there is no evidence it will actually work. In fact, I am convinced it won’t. Having grown up with Tony the Tiger on my Frosties and occasional trips to McDonalds, I was not obese. Why? Because I spent every waking hour outside of school, on my bike or playing sport in the park.

Sadly, youngsters do not go out as much anymore for a variety of reasons, many of them valid. Which is why we, as the Government, need to provide them with the opportunities to do more physical activity. Common sense needs to prevail and we must focus on the right thing. We need to reduce childhood obesity while respecting consumer choice and not restricting the occasional treat.