There are around seven million children aged 5 to 15 years in England, and more than half are not doing the recommended  daily amount of exercise. 

Data from the recent Active Lives survey for Children and Young People shows that only 44.9% of children and young people (3.2 million) are meeting physical activity guidelines of 60 minutes per day. With around 31.3% (2.3 million) doing less than an average of 30 minutes a day.  

Our main focus for Children and Young People work is to engage with underserviced groups of young people who are more likely to be inactive, and working with partners to co-produce and develop youth-led physical activity initiatives through Youth Voice. 

What is Youth Voice? 

Youth Voice means listening to children and young people and involving them in decision-making to create the types of experiences young people want. By embracing Youth Voice and allowing young people to have a say in shaping sport and physical activity, we can help to make opportunities more relevant, more fun, and enable young people to support their peers to be more active.

It’s about creating opportunities for the ideas, opinions, knowledge and experiences of young people, in all their diversity, to inform and shape decisions and what we do as an organisation.

What impact can Youth Voice have? 

By involving Youth Voice from the inception of projects, which are designed with and by young people, the projects are more likely to lead to sustainable opportunities in local communities. The projects will more closely meet the needs of the young people involved, through positive experiences. 

Youth Voice can also help us better understand and address some of the barriers young people face.

Ways to listen to Youth Voice: 

• Children and Young People consultation - taking time to understand young people and report back 
• Utilising digital technologies for engaging young people 
• Co-production of projects and events with young people for young people 
• Establishing young ambassadors at a sports club or physical activity group 
• Linking with the Living Sport Youth Community regarding project proposals 

Children and Young People Funding
Our Children and Young People funding is for projects that reach under-serviced groups of children and young people who are not taking part in physical activity.

Living Sport Youth Community
An opportunity for young people to shape youth sport and physical activity in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.