Increase school-based physical activity

This policy would increase funding to be spent on high-quality PE and sport for at least two hours a week. This would be complemented by a wide range of extracurricular sport and competitive opportunities, providing equal access to sport for boys and girls. Schools would have to record how this money is being spent to achieve these aims, but there would be almost no inspection regime.

The UK Government recommends that all children get at least 60 minutes of moderate physical activity per day, with 30 minutes during school time and 30 minutes outside of school time. However, in line with the Education Act 2022 the UK Government  is unable to prescribe a minimum time requirement for any school subject. To support recommendations, the National Curriculum requires that all local authority-maintained schools provide PE and schools are encouraged to deliver at least two hours per school week. From 2010 to 2022 there has been a 14% decline in hours taught of PE.

In Wales, education is devolved, and the majority of school funding is allocated to local authorities (LAs) via the Local Government Settlement. The Curriculum for Wales, which was introduced in primary schools in September 2022, includes physical activity as a fundamental component of the Health and Wellbeing Area of Learning and Experience. Schools in Wales have the ability to develop their own curriculum around these Areas of Learning and Experience, meaning that there is no guidance within the curriculum on the time that should be allocated to physical activity. The 2022 School Sport Survey Wales found that on average, 93 minutes per week of curricular PE was provided in primary schools across Wales in the 2021/2022 academic year. Similarly, an average of 93 minutes per week of curricular PE was provided in secondary schools in Wales in the 2021/2022 academic year. The Healthy Weight; Healthy Wales Moving Ahead Plan 2022-24 aims to increase this by working with education practitioners to develop their capability and capacity to deliver PE and by introducing the Daily Active Framework. The Daily Active Framework has been developed and will be implemented in 2025.

In Scotland, schools are governed by LAs and so grants would need to be issued via LAs to schools. Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence contains benchmarks tied to physical activity for young people at different stages of their school journey which helps to shape PE classes. The Scottish Government currently has a commitment for schools to deliver two hours of PE per week for all pupils in primary school and at least two 50-minute periods of PE for S1–S4s (year 7 to year 11). It monitors uptake of this through the School Healthy Living Survey, with 99% of schools meeting this provision as of 2023 data.

We estimated that this policy would reduce the prevalence of child UK obesity rates by approximately 0%

This policy is likely not relevant for all children and implementation would need to consider how best to include those with different health conditions. The UK Government currently recommends 20 minutes of physical activity per day for children with disabilities.

Girls, and children from less affluent families, are currently less likely to be physically active, suggesting that there are benefits to be found in increasing their access to PE and extracurricular activities. It is unlikely however that the benefits would be in the form of change in obesity prevalence but there is evidence that there are other health benefits (e.g. mental health). 

We asked experts working in the fields of obesity, food, and health research to rate the strength of the evidence base for each policy, taking into account both reliability (size and consistency) and validity (quality and content) of the evidence. Policies were rated on a Likert scale of 1–5 (none, limited, medium, strong, and very strong evidence base). The Blueprint Expert Advisory Group rated this policy as having a Very Strong evidence base.