Health: Active Lifestyles

Earl Howe Excerpts

Monday 17th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe)]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend on securing this debate, which though brief has been of a very high quality. I found myself agreeing with noble Lords from all sides of the House in many of the things that they were saying so powerfully. We are all aware of the distinguished contribution that my noble friend has made to English sport and helping to raise the profile of women’s participation. That wisdom and experience were amply demonstrated in her opening speech. The timing of the debate, as a number of noble Lords have said, is very appropriate following our extraordinary summer of sport.

Many of us would agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, that we should be moving more as part of a healthy lifestyle—indeed, many noble Lords have spoken eloquently about the benefits of regular exercise—and commentators have started to argue that as a nation we are suffering from a physical activity deficit. Regular physical activity helps to prevent and manage over 20 chronic conditions. The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, was right to remind us of that as did the noble Baroness, Lady Billingham. Conditions include coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer, obesity, mental health problems and muscular-skeletal conditions. The strength of the relationship between physical activity and health outcomes persists across the life course and highlights the potential health gains that could be achieved if individuals can be supported to become more active. Inactivity, on the other hand, is associated with coronary heart disease, breast and colon cancer, and diabetes. It is been estimated to lead to 9% of early deaths globally. It is a silent killer. Less well understood are the risks of sedentary behaviour—sitting for long periods and excessive screen time—which would appear to be independent of how much exercise we do.

My noble friend Lord Addington asked whether the Government were intent on making exercise and sport part of a lifestyle. In July of last year the chief medical officers of the four home countries published Start Active, Stay Active, setting out new guidelines for physical activity. For adults, the new recommendation for at least 150 minutes of physical activity spread across the week replaces the old “five times thirty minutes” message. Importantly, the guidelines address the whole life course from early years to older people and include advice on avoiding sedentary behaviour. Providing expert-led advice to individuals in this way to inform their own lifestyle choices lies at the heart of this Government’s approach to health promotion, one that provides information and enables choice without nannying or hectoring.

As I will set out in a moment, much is being done to encourage people to play sport and exercise more. However, the sad fact is that most of us are insufficiently active. In England, six out of 10 men and seven out of 10 women do less than the CMO guidelines. For children, the guidelines recommend at least 60 minutes of activity daily, but again participation levels are low, with less than a third of youngsters getting enough exercise. In the face of these statistics, we have established a national ambition for physical activity for a year on year increase in the number of adults doing 150 minutes of exercise per week and a similar reduction in those who are “inactive”. This represents what could be achieved if all sectors work together, supported by the new delivery system for public health. The ambition is reflected in the public health outcomes framework indicator for physical activity.

The London Olympic and Paralympics Games this summer have provided us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to address the “activity deficit”. Much has been put in place in the run up to the games to deliver a sport and physical activity legacy. For example, Sport England is investing £150 million into grassroots sport through the “Places, People, Play” programme. Following on from the Games we are determined to raise the proportion of young people playing sport at least once a week through the youth and community sport strategy. Indeed, increasing access to and participation in sport is one of the key themes of the Government’s ongoing legacy plans.

The focus of this debate is about raising awareness of the importance of an active lifestyle. During the summer, the Department of Health ran a highly successful Games4Life campaign, which built on the success of the 2011 really big summer adventure campaign and targeted children, their families and adults. The central theme of Games4Life was for families to get up off the couch and join in the summer of sport. A quarter of a million people received personalised activity plans as a result of the campaign and 88,000 signed up to receive Games4Life follow up e-mails. Alongside Change4Life, NHS Choices offers a great deal of extra information for those who want to learn more about activity. A cornerstone of Change4Life is partnership. The public health responsibility deal physical activity network also takes a partnership approach to engage a range of organisations in the promotion of physical activity to employees, consumers and communities.

My noble friend Lord Addington spoke powerfully about the need to encourage the young into sport. Change4Life recognises that healthy behaviours are forged in the young and we make no apologies for placing children and young people at the centre of our plans for driving up sports participation. The School Games represent a major legacy commitment, creating the opportunity for every school and every child to play competitive sport all year round. Over 15,000 schools have registered to be part of the games, with a reach of around 4 million pupils. We are also working with the Youth Sport Trust to deliver Change4Life sports clubs in schools. These are targeted towards children and young people who are at risk of dropping out of sport and have already seen a 166% increase in participation by those youngsters. All this should of course be seen in the context of our support for PE and school sport and the wider youth sport strategy.

My noble friend prompts me to mention that central to our ambition and commitment to have a lasting legacy from the Olympics is our determination to put competitive sport firmly on the agenda in all schools. Competitive team and individual sports will be at the heart of the programme of study. In addition, through the School Games, we will make sure that a range of competitive sporting opportunities are in place for all schools that sign up to be a part of the Olympic aspiration to “inspire a generation”. My own department remains committed to this agenda for all youngsters, irrespective of ability.

The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, indicated that changes to the school curriculum might remove opportunities for young people. We are aware that some pupils would prefer to take part in non-competitive activities such as dance. We are supportive of that wish. However, our aim is that all pupils, regardless of ability, should have the opportunity to experience both individual and team-based competitive sports. The Change4Life sports clubs in schools are targeted at the least active children, and the independent evaluation has shown that they are particularly effective at engaging girls, which is very positive.

Incidentally, the noble Baroness, Lady Billingham, mentioned my right honourable friend Mr Gove’s policies, in particular what she described as his decision to scrap two hours of compulsory PE. This issue has been subject to frequent misunderstanding. The previous Government’s targets for physical education were wholly aspirational and could not be enforced. The law specifically prevents the Secretary of State for Education dictating to schools how much time they should devote to PE or, indeed, to any other national curriculum subject. That is for schools to decide. PE will remain a compulsory subject at all four key stages following the review of the national curriculum. I believe that is positive.

The Government’s youth sport strategy is intended to encourage everyone, but particularly young people, to take up sport and develop a sporting habit for life. This will deliver at least 6,000 partnerships between schools and local sports clubs, an additional £160 million on new and upgraded sports facilities and £250 million for communities, including our work with county sports partnerships and local authorities.

I have spoken a great deal about sport, but my noble friend Lady Byford has reminded me to mention that the Department for Transport and my own department are working across government to give a strong boost to walking and cycling for travel purposes. Most recently, the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement included an additional £42 million investment in the sustainable transport fund for cycling infrastructure, including cycling safety.

Healthcare professionals are in a unique position to encourage their patients to exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle. As early as 2006, NICE advised that brief advice in primary care was a cost-effective way of promoting physical activity. “Let’s Get Moving” is one way for GPs to build on this guidance.

My noble friend Lady Byford invited me to say a little about the Government’s investment of £30 million to develop the new National Centre of Excellence for Sport and Exercise Medicine. The national centre will build on research into sport science and current expertise to translate this knowledge into benefits for patients and to enable more people to be more active. The primary role of the centre is to provide the best possible evidence base for sport and exercise health for our elite athletes, but also for the general population, particularly those with chronic, long-term conditions, which can be improved by exercise, safely supervised. The £30 million funding that we have made available will allow researchers to work alongside clinicians to quickly translate research into clinical practice. I hope that that will be music to the ears of my noble friend Lord Addington as well.

I am receiving strong messages that my time is nearly up. I have, however, one minute left and I would like to turn to some of the excellent questions posed by my noble friend Lady Heyhoe Flint. In response to her comments on Start Active, Stay Active, I think it is fair to say that there remains a disappointing lack of awareness of the UK physical activity guidelines among health professionals. We are committed to the dissemination of the messages contained in Start Active, Stay Active, both to the public and to doctors. For example, this summer’s Games4Life campaign included summaries of the guidelines in personal activity plans provided to families. My noble friends referred to specific funding streams to help disabled people take up sport. These are only part of the bigger, long-term approach being taken by Sport England in its youth and community sports strategy. Forty national governing bodies of sport have presented plans to make sport a practical choice for disabled people as part of the wider whole-sport plan investment programme, which is funded and overseen by Sport England.

I turn to the teaching of PE and swimming in primary schools. Initial teacher training should prepare newly qualified primary teachers to teach the full range of curriculum subjects to the required standard. This would include the national curriculum for PE, which currently requires all pupils to be capable of swimming 25 metres unaided by the end of key stage 2. Ofsted will inspect swimming, as well as PE and sport, if it is one of the lessons encountered during the inspection.

With the leave of the House, I will continue for another minute or so, as there is theoretically time in hand. With regard to the Government’s plans for 4,000 secondary schools to host a link with a community sports club, which I have already mentioned, I can confirm that progress in this huge undertaking has been very promising. There are currently 380 satellite clubs already up and running, and this will increase to 700 by March 2013. We are monitoring delivery very closely to ensure that we maintain progress throughout the lifetime of the strategy.

My noble friend asked what would replace the Cabinet sub-committee on public health. Public health issues will now be brought into the broader domestic policy committees rather than sitting with a separate sub-committee. This will allow public health issues to be discussed and decisions to be taken by a wider group of senior Ministers across government.

The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, asked me about women in sport. Sport England continues to fund the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, which campaigns to make physical activity an everyday part of life for every woman and girl.

The noble Baroness, Lady Billingham, rightly drew attention to the public health problem of obesity. She will, I am sure, recall that our call to action on obesity in England, published in October last year, sets out how obesity will be tackled in the new public health and NHS system. Clear ambitions are set out in that strategy, which bear on much of the debate this evening.

I have tried to demonstrate how we are using the London Games as a springboard to raise everyone’s awareness of the importance of exercise for health—in short, how we can turn a winning summer into an active future.

House adjourned at 10.45 pm.