The Department and the national health service promote the benefits of physical activity in many ways to professionals, the public and other stakeholders. This complements investment across government to encourage and enable healthy active lifestyles, for example through the physical educations, schools sport and club links programme.
In particular, primary care trusts are required to have systematic and managed health promotion programmes, including action on exercise, that are responsive to local needs. Spending on the promotion of sport and physical recreation by the NHS is not recorded centrally.
Alongside spending by the NHS to support local delivery of physical activity programmes for adults and children, the Department has funded pilot work to inform interventions. This has included:
the local exercise action pilot scheme (LEAP), which has been jointly funded by the Department, Sport England and the Countryside Agency with an overall cost of £2.5 million between 2003 and 2006. The LEAP pilots included interventions targeted towards children, adults and older people.
a joint Department of Health, Department for Education and Skills, and Youth Sport Trust pilot programme Schools on the Move, which includes resource materials for schools, teachers and young people to help integrate pedometers into the life of the school. The Department has invested £100,000 in the pilot during 2005 and 2006.
National programmes to promote physical activity arising out of this pilot work include a £494,000 school pedometer programme, distributing 40,000 pedometers to 250 schools in deprived areas to encourage children to become more active, and enabling all schools to access resources to support increased physical activity.
The Public Health White Paper “Choosing Health” included a commitment to develop continuing professional programmes for schools to support physical activity and we have invested £160,000 in a schools physical activity guide as part of the healthy schools toolkit.
The Secretary of State for Health, through the Section 64 General Scheme of Grants (S64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968), has power to make grants to voluntary organisations in England whose activities support the Department of Health’s policy priorities.
The Department has provided funding to physical activity based programmes under the Section 64 Scheme to the following organisations:
Sustrans;
Amateur Swimming Association;
English Federation of Disability Sport;
National Heart Forum; and
British Trust for Conservation Volunteers.
Delivery of programmes to encourage children and young people to lead healthy active lifestyles extends beyond the remit of any single government department.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport share a public service agreement (PSA) target to increase the percentage of 5 to 16-year-olds spending at least two hours a week on high quality PE and school sport.
The Government are investing £1.5 billion, including lottery funding, in the five years to 2008 in support of this target and on 13 July the Prime Minister announced a £100 million campaign to give every child the chance of five hours of sport every week in the run up to 2012.
The Government are also investing in walking and cycling to school. DCSF and the Department for Transport are providing £7.5 million to fund a network of school travel advisers to develop and implement school travel plans. By March 2005 more than 10,000 schools had developed approved travel plans, and £55 million in capital grants has been given to schools to spend on items such as secure bike shelters and new entrances.
In March 2006 the BIG Lottery fund launched the £155 million Children’s Play initiative in England.