Written evidence submitted by Professor Mike Duncan

This evidence is authored by Professor Mike Duncan in Director of the Centre for Physical Activity, Sport and Exercise Science at Coventry University. Professor Duncan  is a BASES accredited Sport and Exercise Scientists and a Charted Scientist with the Science Council. His area of research expertise is on the impact of Physical Education and Sport for children’s holistic development where he has published over 400 peer reviewed papers on this and related topics. He has experience working in teacher education for PE at both primary and secondary levels and has previously worked on Funded projects focusing on how schools and community sport can foster children’s lifelong relationship with movement for Sport England, the World Badminton Federation, European Union amongst others. He most recently was co-lead on the development of Sport England’s national consensus on Physical Literacy.

Evidence

We would like the committee to consider that in  terms of developing positive and life-long relationships with sport and Physical Education, our work has demonstrated that understanding Physical Literacy, on the part of stakeholders (teachers, schools, local authorities, coaches, national governing bodies) is key.  The term Physical Literacy comprises the competence, confidence, motivation, knowledge and understanding to participate in and enjoy physical activity. There is widespread recognition that children who have better physical literacy, and greater competence in fundamental movement skills (FMS) are more physically active, more likely to participate in school sport, community sport in addition to a wider range of other benefits. FMS are the building blocks of all physical activity and sport. FMS comprises the underpinning skills for movement such as running, jumping, hopping, throwing, catching, kicking amongst others. There is evidence that these concepts hold true for all children, including those with lower participation rates, including girls, children with disabilities and those from low socio-economic status backgrounds. We would like the committee to consider that the concepts of Physical Literacy and FMS should be considered as holistic concepts which once understood by the stakeholder groups mentioned above, go beyond Physical Education and Sport in terms of benefit and positively impacts child well-being and educational attainment across different demographic and socio-economic groups.

I authored an expert statement on behalf of the International Motor Development Research Consortium which examines this issue for children in the UK.1 This expert statement concluded: The fundamental movement skills of children and adolescents in the United Kingdom is concerningly low and does not currently provide a satisfactory foundation for children to build physically active lives. Schools, community sports, and healthcare systems need to focus on enhancing fundamental movement skills in children and adolescents, the potential long-term impacts of low fundamental movement skills, including higher rates of inactivity and poorer health and well-being, will likely create a significant social, health, and economic burden for the United Kingdom and Ireland if Government, Education, Community Partners and Stakeholders do not collectively act.

This expert statement also made the following recommendations:

1. Movement Skills as Policy Priority: Given the available evidence, decision makers in local and national government and research funding bodies in the United Kingdom and Ireland need to better acknowledge the importance of movement skills and should position the development of movement skills as a fundamental priority to benefit children and adolescents.
2. Cross-Sector Approach: The development of positive trajectories of movement skills for health benefit in children and adolescents should not solely be left to school PE. Cross-sector collaboration including public health, local and national government, and community groups need to play a part, and to acknowledge the important role that developing movement skills plays in enabling PA for lifelong health and well-being.
3. Evidence-Based Interventions: Developmentally appropriate and evidence-based interventions, targeted to different age groups alongside sustained opportunities to practice a variety of skills, are needed to enhance the movement skills of children in the United Kingdom.
4. Effective Practitioner Training: Practitioners need to be better trained to understand and develop movement skills in children and adolescents across school (both within PE and the wider curriculum), community sport, and public health.
5. Regular Monitoring: National observatories focusing on movement skills for health, alongside regional and national surveillance research programs are needed. Such surveillance data would be impactful in ensuring evidence informed practice to improve the health and general development of children and adolescents through movement skills.

I would like to advise the Committee that it is important to contextualize the issues caused by low levels of Physical Literacy given that the level of fundamental movement skills needed to engage in community sports and Physical Education is recognised as being lower than it should be in the UK if children and young people are to meet the developmental trajectories for a healthy life.1,2 For example, through our research we have demonstrated that only no children in Year 2 can adequately perform the  four fundamental movement skills  (run, jump, throw, catch) mandated by the National Curriculum for PE (and where the curriculum suggest all children should be able to perform these skills) and only 25% of children in Year 4 (so 2 years after the developmental milestone mandated by the curriculum) were sufficiently competent in these skills.2

How can schools and community sport better enable children to develop positive and life-long relationships with sport and physical education?

• What can be done to engage groups with lower participation rates - such as girls, those with disabilities or from lower socio-economic backgrounds?

Our research3 has demonstrated that stakeholders nationally from education, community sport, national governing bodies of sport, physical activity and sport coaching sectors are aware of the term “Physical Literacy” and hold value of it within their practice. Crucially, there are key misconceptions relating to what physical literacy is, which has the effect of making nationwide efforts to support physical literacy less consistent. Stakeholders have not had foundational training in the concept, relying instead on either sport specific training or general training in physical education.  Neither of these adequately prepares those working in school (or community sport) to help facilitate positive and life-long relationships with sport and physical education in the children and young people they work with. This work suggests there is a need for joined up training that embeds the concepts of physical literacy and fundamental movement skills. We have likewise found similar for specific groups of individuals working in early years education4 and coaches in community sport.5

Our research with those individuals and organisations trying to facilitate positive and life-long relationships with sport and Physical Education, to date suggests:

• There are significant barriers which are common across sectors which relate to lack of specific training on the key concepts involved (physical literacy, fundamental movement skills) as opposed to sport specific training or general physical education training.
• Physical Education Curriculum in England mentions some of the key concepts but teachers, particularly at primary level do not know the background, have the training, or experiences to effectively facilitate positive trajectories of movement. This is critical given primary age offers a window to use movement skills to develop lifelong physical activity, it facilitates educational attainment more widely and has a substantial and positive impact on child well-being. We recently finished a British Academy funded pilot project which demonstrates a practically significant improvement in child development outcomes after a package of Physical Education pedagogy  training for primary teachers in state schools.
• There is a perceived lack of good quality resources for individuals to use in their practice and instead teachers, early years professionals and grassroots community coaches tend to use resources from often low quality and unsubstantiated sources from social media.
• Lack of specific training is a key issue. It is important to note that while Physical Education teachers at secondary school level have specific training related to the subject they teach, this is not the case for individuals working in early years or primary school education. 
• Likewise for community sport, the majority of individuals providing opportunities for children and young people to engage in physical activity are volunteers and have limited time to engage and often have no formal training outside of national governing body coaching courses which are sport specific and do not provide the basic foundations to develop positive and life-long relationships with sport or PE to create positive trajectories of physical activity for life.

There is some good evidence that different modes of intervention are effective in developing Physical Literacy and fundamental movement skills in school settings1,6 and in community and home settings (7 PSE),7 but the research funding landscape for work relating to these topics is challenging. UKRI do not formally refer to Sport in any of their Research Council schemes, and Physical Education research funding specifically does not exist, rather being considered a subset of Education or Health related funding, yet often Health funders do not fund as the work is deemed too ‘Sport’ and Education funders do not fund as the work is deemed to ‘Health’ related.

I would be happy to give evidence regarding the above in person to the Committee to expand on the comments made above.

References

1. Duncan, M. J., Foweather, L., Bardid, F., Barnett, A. L., Rudd, J., O'Brien, W., Foulkes, J. D., Roscoe, C., Issartel, J., Stratton, G., & Clark, C. C. T. (2022). Motor competence among children in the United Kingdom and Ireland: An expert statement on behalf of the International Motor Development Research Consortium. Journal of Motor Learning and Development, 10(1), 7–26.
2. Duncan, M. J., Roscoe, C. M., Noon, M., Clark, C. C., O’Brien, W., & Eyre, E. L. (2020). Run, jump, throw and catch: How proficient are children attending English schools at the fundamental motor skills identified as key within the school curriculum? European Physical Education Review, 26(4), 814-826.
3. Duncan, M. J., Essiet, I., Hurter, L., Roberts, W. M., Lewis, K., Goss, H., Morris, J. L., Bingham, D. D., O'Brien, W., Barnett, L. M., Shearer, C., Daly-Smith, A., & Foweather, L. (2024). Stakeholder perceptions of physical literacy: results from a national consultation in England. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 6, 1457845.
4. Duncan, M. J., Fitton Davies, K., Africa, E., & Sevel, E. (2022). Early years professionals’ perceptions and practices of motor skill development, physical activity and healthy eating. Education 3-13, 52(8), 1103–1115.
5. Duncan, M. J., Weldon, A., Barnett, L. M., & Lander, N. (2022). Perceptions and practices of fundamental movement skills in grassroots soccer coaches. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 17(4), 761-771.
6. Duncan, M. J., Fitton Davies, K., Okwose, N., Harwood, A. E., & Jakovljevic, D. G. (2024). Effects of a 10-Week Integrated Curriculum Intervention on Physical Activity, Resting Blood Pressure, Motor Skills, and Well-Being in 6- to 7-Year-Olds. Journal of Physical Activity & Health, 21(6), 595–605.
7. Fitton Davies, K., Clarke, S., Martins, R., Rudd, J. R., & Duncan, M. (2024). The effect of a home-based, gamified stability skills intervention on 4-5-year-old children's physical and cognitive outcomes: A pilot study. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 73, 102636.