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30 Aug 2023 263

UK Coaching welcome new government strategy to get 3.5m people active by 2030

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has this week published the government’s new strategy, Get Active: a strategy for the future of physical activity.

As the leading voice for coaches across the UK, UK Coaching welcomes the initiative and fully supports the government’s commitment to get 3.5m people (2.5 million adults and over 1 million children and young people) active by 2030.

The strategy, which also has a strong focus on accessibility to sport and physical activity, aligns closely with UK Coaching’s vision to build a happier and healthier nation through great coaching and ties into the Uniting the Movement strategy set out by Sport England.

UK Coaching’s CEO, Mark Gannon commented:

We are pleased to see the government’s strategy for the future of sport and physical activity and reaffirm our commitment to supporting increased activity levels for all through the power of great coaching.

"It is essential that we put our collective commitment to ensuring a healthier and happier nation into practice. Coaches play an integral role in providing opportunities for people to become active and remain the vital conduit in supporting physical activity and sport across the UK. This collective commitment to transforming sport and physical activity must include helping all coaches become the best they can be, and ensuring their invaluable contribution is recognised.

"Coaches continue to deliver an outstanding contribution to the health and wellbeing of our society and will only become more important in shaping sporting environments across the nation and inspiring more people to engage with sport and physical activity.”

The Get Active strategy also sets out a vision to improve how sport integrity issues are dealt with and ensuring sporting environments are welcoming, safe, and inclusive. UK Coaching’s Duty to Care campaign, partnered with its EEDI strategy, outlines its long-standing efforts to embed an approach that puts accessibility, care and wellbeing at the heart of sporting experiences for coaches and participants, and advocates for a care system that protects everyone equally while ensuring sport and physical activity is accessible for people from all backgrounds, abilities, and motivations.

The foundation of great coaching, Duty to Care, will be an essential part of the drive to open more opportunities for people to get more active - in addition to increasing participation, it is vital that we ensure that everyone who is taking part in sport can feel safe, welcome and included at all times. Duty to Care is about making a positive difference to the health and happiness of the nation by providing participants with a supportive and welcoming environment which encourages them to develop their skills, have a life-long love of sport and physical activity, and enable them to reach their full potential and achieve their goals.

For children and young people, the Play Their Way campaign continues to support and empower coaches to adopt a child-first approach to their coaching. One of the primary drivers of participation for young people is enjoyment, and as part of the government’s pledge to see over one million children become active by 2030, a child-first coaching approach that priorities the fundamental rights of all young people in sport and activity will play a vital role in both driving increased participation, and ensuring that the environments we are providing are fundamentally safe, secure and uplifting for all.

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