ukactive has bolstered its senior team in an effort to drive forward the physical activity agenda in 2017.

Jack Shakespeare, Joe Robinson, Lara Lill and Steve Scales have all joined the not-for-profit health body in the past two months.

Shakespeare joins ukactive as head of ukactive Kids to help champion the children’s activity agenda. He has spent the last 10 years with Fit for Sport, developing and implementing multi-stakeholder physical activity campaigns and projects for children and young people, both nationally and internationally.

 Robinson is the organisation's new creative director and will be responsible for implementing and delivering a creative strategy. He has worked on projects in the hospitality, retail and commercial industries.

 Lill, former head of health and wellbeing at the Amateur Swimming Association, has joined as ukactive's health associate. In her role, Lill will focus on physical activity, particularly in the workplace.

 Finally, Scales has joined as lead for local government engagement, having worked for local authorities in his career. Most recently, Scales has worked in the private sector as national strategic sales manager for the public sector at Matrix Fitness.

 The appointments cap a busy six months for ukactive, which has also seen the recruitment of client services director Phil Horton and head of communications Jak Phillips, as the organisation has been forced to rebuild its senior team following the departures of David Stalker (former chief executive), Stephen Wilson (former public affairs director), Syreeta Clarke (former communications director), Stephen Williams (former finance director) and Stan Jackson (former external affairs manager).

In December, ukactive also appointed four new non-executive directors to its board.

 Welcoming the new senior team members, ukactive executive director Steven Ward said: “Our new team members have already brought fresh impetus to the work of our organisation, and I hope to work closely with them as we enhance the work of ukactive, and drive forward the physical activity agenda on all fronts.”

 Jack Shakespeare, added: “Joining the ukactive team is a great honour and having the opportunity to head up the ukactive Kids strategy is a challenge I am already relishing.

 “I am hugely passionate about the children’s physical activity agenda and we need to bring together a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that movement is the natural choice for young people from the cradle to grave.”