The report, which covers the 2020-21 academic year, shows that while there's been no overall decrease in activity levels compared to the previous academic year, existing inequalities have widened while enjoyment and confidence in taking part are down, and there are new short-term issues that need to be considered so they don't become long-term trends.

Positively, the results provide further evidence that active children have higher levels of mental wellbeing and illustrate the role sport and physical activity can play in supporting them amid rising levels of loneliness and declining mental health during the pandemic.

In general, there were lower activity levels when there were more coronavirus restrictions in place – which illustrates the importance of protecting and supporting sport and physical activity opportunities in schools, the active commute to school and the other organised sport in children and young people's lives.

Worryingly, the new findings reveal that existing inequalities have been exacerbated and there’s also been a drop in activity levels for boys that brings them in-line with girls’ activity levels, with girls having traditionally been less likely to take part.

It’s a new problem that’s arisen since coronavirus emerged and there's a risk of it becoming a longer-term trend if it's not addressed.

During the academic year 2020-21, there were 94,000 fewer active children and young people compared to the year before the pandemic (2018-19).

However, due to the effort of teachers, parents, guardians, carers and sport and activity providers – plus the children and young people themselves – activity levels overall remain unchanged from the previous academic year (2019-20), which also featured coronavirus restrictions. 

Those from the least affluent families remain the least active, and this gap has widened since the start of the pandemic – in part because low affluence families have less access to outdoor space.

This was particularly significant for black boys, whose activity levels fell at a starker rate than boys overall.

There's also a broader ethnicity gap with only 36 per cent of black children getting active compared to 45 per cent of all children and young people.

Overall, children and young people are doing fewer activities than they were before the pandemic. Fitness and gym participation is an example of activities that did see gains over the academic year but team sports fell before a partial recovery in the latter part of the year.

Swimming is the activity that's seen the biggest drop overall – though again there was a partial recovery in the summer term – and there are worrying drops in swimming ability among primary school children.

Nearly 70 per cent of all children and young people from the least affluent families are unable to swim 25m unaided, a vital life skill.