Sixty four per cent of parents believe that the wellbeing of their children is more important than their academic attainment, according to new research by the Youth Sport Trust.
The research, supported by the Gregson Family Foundation and conducted by YouGov, highlights parents’ desire for wellbeing to be measured and tracked, with 76 per cent of parents agreeing that “we need to measure young people’s wellbeing if we are going to improve it,” something supported by the charity Youth Sport Trust.
Two-thirds of parents say that the pandemic, lockdown and changes to schooling have worsened their children’s wellbeing. Parents also recognise the importance of physical education (PE) and school sport in helping support children’s wellbeing and 81 per cent believe that cuts to PE, sport and break time in schools are likely to have a negative impact.
The Youth Sport Trust said that the findings highlight the need for children’s wellbeing to be central to recovery plans and that sport, PE and physical activity are a crucial part of that. The children’s charity has formed an alliance with Sport England, NGBs and other sport and physical activity providers to support schools to deliver an ‘Active Recovery’ term and summer schools, but believes a long-term strategy is needed from government to tackle young people’s physical wellbeing and happiness, underpinned by a national wellbeing measurement programme to inform and target action and monitor these key issues.
“The fact that 81 per cent of parents believe that cuts to PE, sport and breaktime would have a detrimental effect on their children’s wellbeing reinforces for the need for a real focus on nurturing their enjoyment of playing sport and physical activity in the coming weeks and months,” said Ali Oliver, CEO of Youth Sport.
“We are pleased to be working with Sport England to address the many challenges we know children and schools face and it has been encouraging to have recent engagement with the Secretaries of State for Education and Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on this issue.
“Longer term, we want to see a joined-up national strategy for young people to be the most active and happiest in the world. A key part of this should be a national wellbeing measurement programme.”
