Children need to adopt active habits for a healthy lifestyle at an early age, if the growth in childhood obesity is to be arrested, says SkillsActive, the sector skills council for active leisure, learning and wellbeing. Activities must be enjoyable and sustainable, so that children carry them on throughout childhood and into later life.
The Children and Young People Statistics 2013, released recently by the British Heart Foundation, showed that 85 per cent of girls and 73 per cent of boys aged 13 fail to do the recommended one hour of physical activity per day. They also revealed that a quarter of children aged two to 15 spend six hours every Saturday and Sunday being inactive.
The council’s Head of National Partnerships Stephen Mitchell believes that immediate action is needed to counter-act “the rising problem of childhood obesity in Britain.” The views of children must be taken into consideration to avoid a top-down imposition of activities, which may then be discarded by the child at the earliest opportunity. “The best professionals are the ones that have a diverse range of methods to encourage children to get active and more importantly, ensure they have fun doing it”, says Mr Mitchell.
SkillsActive has launched Capre, the Register of Children’s Activity Professionals, as a way of regulating and accrediting those who work with children in physical activity. The aim is to ensure that teachers and parents have access to high calibre professionals with a track record of working effectively with children.
The Register can be found at:
www.capregister.org
