British governments are responsible for "mass child neglect" for letting the nation’s young people become unfit, it was alleged today.
Leadership and strategy on the issue has been "total absent," experts write in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The experts say child health in the UK is now behind other European countries – but repeated calls to give priority to physical activity in schools have had little success.
Now many children spend most of their time at school sitting down for up to eight hours a day, they say.
Primary schools are getting cash over the next two years to improve physical education – but on average they will get just £9,500. And school playing fields continue to be sold off, they say.
Meanwhile a £28 million pot of cash to support competitive school games is likely to benefit the wealthiest and most privileged, they claim.
Led by Sam Allardyce, of the University of Bolton, Manchester, the experts say: “The minimal funding, lack of interest and absence of a child physical activity strategy strongly support the notion that the state is failing to act to prevent harm against children and failing to meet children’s basic physical needs likely to result in the serious impairment of their health and development.
“This is quite literally indistinguishable from the government’s own definition of child neglect."
Is the lack of physical activity strategy for children complicit mass child neglect? British Journal of Sports Medicine 10 December 2013; doi 10.1136/bjsports-2013-093018 [abstract]
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