GPA0001

Written evidence submitted by British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences

BASES EVIDENCE TO THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE INQUIRY ON GRASSROOTS PARTICIPATION IN SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

1. The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) is the professional body for sport and exercise sciences in the UK. Our mission is to drive excellence in the sport and exercise sciences through the promotion of evidence-based practice and the development and enhancement of professional and ethical standards.

2. The relatively slow progress in creating a more physically active population speaks to the magnitude of the task. It is clear from the evidence in the NAO report that increasing the physical activity behaviour of the nation and reducing the incidence of sedentary living is hard to achieve and that there are no quick fixes. As a result, to ensure that interventions are value for money they need to be based on the scientific evidence and be objectively and independently evaluated. Evaluation needs to ensure that it captures engagement and continued participation 1 as distinct from transient footfall.

3. Climate change is going to have an impact on sport and physical activity. Interventions to promote grassroots participation in the future are going to have to consider i) how a hotter environment may change the opportunities and motivation to exercise 2 and ii) protecting participants from, and educating them about, heat illnesses. Therefore, to achieve value for money when updating the UK’s ageing sports facilities, care needs to be taken to cost in i) air conditioning, ii) drink/cooling stations and effective educational material. All new sport and leisure facilities need to be designed with global warming in mind.

4. Existing phone and on device apps that count steps and measure heart rate already make big data on physical activity available. Over the next few years, the use of population level surveillance of physical activity behaviour, trends and demographics offers opportunities to better understand and promote health related behaviours. In using big data and technology in this way great care needs to be taken to protect the privacy and personal freedom of the individual. This is an area that would benefit from an informed conversation in the public square and is something the Department and Sport England might consider fostering in collaboration with BASES. By debating this issue, the Department and Sport England may help maintain trust and public confidence in big data and health monitoring/surveillance thereby protecting a potential value for money strategy to promote and increase participation.

5. The return on the investment in sport and physical activity is traditionally, for very good reasons, reported in £s. In addition, thought should be given to reporting the return of investing in sport and physical activity in terms of health outcomes and the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. For example, Berners-Lee 3 estimates that a heart bypass operation costs around 2.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Every such surgery that is prevented by physical activity not only saves individual suffering and NHS resources but also helps slow climate change. (It is also worth noting that Berners-Lee estimates that the 2018 Football World Cup hosted by Russia cost 2.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent - 74% of which was caused by transport factors)

6. The NAO report recommends that the Department should do three things moving forward and in addition that Sport England should also take three new actions. To these six recommendations, BASES suggests that consideration should also be given to:

Building a cross Party consensus on the value and importance of increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour across the UK, particularly in the most hard-to-engage.

Preparing for the next Pandemic and how physical activity might be better promoted and protected in any future lockdowns.

Learning from international examples of what works and what does not. For example, the use of professionally qualified coaches and specialist physical education teachers to deliver exercise and sport to children in schools and clubs. Physical education provides the base for all children to learn to move their bodies. There is a strong tradition in Continental Europe and Scandinavia for quality specialist-led physical education from which the UK could learn.

Embedding evidence-based practice and policy formation into the work of the Department and Sport England – both of which should be informed and led by the Science.

References

Hull, R., Zaidell, L., Mileva, K., de Oliveira, R.F. (2021). This Girl Can, can’t she? Perspectives from exercise providers and participants on what factors influence participation. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 57.

Guillaume Chevance, PhD, Ujué Fresán, PhD, Eric Hekler, PhD, Donald Edmondson, PhD, Simon J Lloyd, PhD, Joan Ballester, PhD, Jill Litt, PhD, Ivana Cvijanovic, PhD, Vera Araújo-Soares, PhD, Paquito Bernard, PhD, Thinking Health-related Behaviors in a Climate Change Context: A Narrative Review, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 2022;, kaac039, https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaac039

Berners- Lee, M. (2020). How Bad are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything. Profile Books.