ukactive is to renew efforts to tackle childhood inactivity through a raft of initiatives following its recent merger with Compass.

Compass – the representative body for providers of children’s activity and sport in schools and communities – announced a six month review with ukactive last year following the resignation of former CEO Martin Gallagher, the outcome of which was the recent merger.

Tackling youth inactivity is an increasingly hot topic and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) recently declared it should be a top priority for all parties in the forthcoming General Election. An increasing number of organisations across the physical activity sector have created products and services to boost youth activity levels, prompting ukactive to support the momentum with a number of measures.

The physical activity sector body is launching a new ukactive Kids membership category and will produce a policy report in early June calling for a greater focus on children’s activity levels by the next government. ukactive Kids will aim to inform government policy, develop strategies to foster sector growth and work closely with members to define standards and good practice, all under the vision of getting more children, more active, more often.

This focus on getting kids more active will be integrated across all ukactive activities. For example, this year’s National Fitness Day on 9 September will give schools the chance to run events aimed at engaging higher numbers of school children in physical activity and integrating this into the school day.

“At a time when the new government will be looking to robustly review its approach to children’s activity it’s essential that the sector has a strong, unified voice on the critical issue of promoting an active childhood,” said Dean Horridge, founder of Fit for Sport, former Compass chair and now chair of the ukactive Kids Board.

“ukactive Kids will work closely with Ofsted, the Department for Education and the broad range of stakeholders with an interest in this agenda to make sure that any government policy of ‘Education, Education, Education’ is precluded by the word physical.”