The Active Healthy Kids England 2022 Report Card is a source for knowledge, insight, and understanding of the state of child and youth physical activity in England.

It aims to influence thinking and action among stakeholders to help them build better programmes, campaigns, and policies in order to increase physical activity among children and youth.

In addition to academic audiences, it is an important real-world tool for numerous stakeholders, including:

• the Government
• local authorities
• teachers
• coaches
• public health promoters
• recreation professionals
• community development leaders
• funders.

Research methods

We used the best available sources of data to compile this Report Card. This included national surveys and peer-reviewed research from January 2016 to April 2022.

This data was then consolidated, synthesised, and assessed by members of an expert panel, who collectively assigned grades to each of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance (AHKGA) indicators (an agreed, and standardised, international criteria).

Following detailed discussions, and in some instances secondary data analyses, the panel assigned the grades of A, B, C, D, F, or INC (incomplete) to each indicator. This was based on based on whether children across England were achieving the AHKGA benchmarks.

Team members

University of Bath

• Professor Martyn Standage
• Professor Fiona Gillison

Other institutions

• Dr Anna Chalkley (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences)
• Professor Stuart Fairclough (Edge Hill University)
• Professor Charlie Foster (University of Bristol)
• Professor Lauren Sherar (Loughborough University)
• Dr Tessa Strain (University of Cambridge)

Conclusions and recommendations

The 2022 Report Card findings are very similar to previous iterations (i.e. those released in 2014, 2016, and 2018).

The provision to engage children and youth in physical activity in England remains good, yet more effort is required to maximise the use of the existing resources, monitor progress, and subsequently improve the physical activity engagement of English children and youth.

Next steps

Our ability to grade all indicators, and our confidence in these grades, would benefit greatly from a stratified and targeted survey designed to directly assess the ten core AHKGA indicators. Such an approach would overcome several research gaps that led to the awarding of INC grades.

Similarly, nationally representative monitoring with device-measured physical activity in England is required (i.e. nationally representative data are currently derived from self-report measures).