Urgent action
Our strategy
About the
Youth Sport Trust
We are a children’s charity, founded in 1995 to harness the power of play and sport in children’s education and development.
Our vision
A future where every child enjoys the life-changing benefits of play and sport
Our Mission
Equip educators and empower young people to build brighter futures
Together
We create opportunities for everyone to belong and achieve
Introduction from our CEO
This impact report outlines the work we have done during the 2023/2024 academic year to further our mission. It covers the second year of delivery against our 2022/2035 strategy ‘Inspiring Changemakers, Building Belonging’, the period from September 2023 until August 2024.
You can read more about the work we have been doing against each of the three core objectives of our strategy, and how we have been laying the foundations for the next phase, below.
Our reach
During the 2023/2024 academic year we equipped educators and empowered young people to build brighter futures using the power of PE, sport and play.
Youth Sport Trust targeted programmes and interventions:
193,358
opportunities for young people to participate in sport, physical activity and play made possible by the Youth Sport Trust
10,782
training opportunities provided to young people by our athlete mentors, coaches and networks, empowering them to lead and inspire their peers
9,253
training opportunities provided to teachers, coaches and practitioners equipping them to lead good quality inclusive sport and PE
Programmes delivered nationally on behalf of partners, including The FA and School Games:
2,495,522
young people given the opportunity to participate in our national programmes
47,788
training opportunities provided to young people, empowering them to lead and inspire their peers through our national programmes
1,372
training opportunities provided to teachers, coaches and practitioners through our national programmes
The reported reach of our work has increased significantly from the last academic year due to a combination of growth in our programme delivery and the fact that we are now extrapolating data to more accurately record our reach.
Delivering against our strategy
In 2022 we launched our new 13 year strategy, Inspiring Changemakers, Building Belonging.
The strategy aims to effect change, focussing on three main objectives so that a child starting school in 2022 will leave the education system in 2035 having been able to access the life-changing benefits of play and sport to help them achieve their full potential.
By taking urgent action now to build back healthier, happier, more resilient young people, we will establish an evidence base on which we can drive a generational shift and ultimately achieve societal change by 2035.
This impact report covers the second year of delivery against our new strategy, reflecting on what we have achieved against our three main aims.
Build back healthier, happier and more resilient young people and level the playing field for those most disadvantaged.
Delivering the right outcomes for young people
Through our work in 2024 as a partner on developing the Sport England Physical Literacy Consensus Statement for England, we understand that having a positive and meaningful relationship with movement and physical activity makes us more likely to be and stay active, benefiting our health, wellbeing and quality of life.
As a result of taking part in a Youth Sport Trust programme, young people themselves reported that they had seen the following results:
78%
improved confidence to take part in physical activity
77%
increased resilience
78%
improved enjoyment of taking part in physical activity
73%
improved happiness overall
This shows a contribution to an overall improvement of their physical literacy. Notably, many of the young people who engaged with our programmes reported that participating had a positive impact on the overall amount of time they spent being physically active (69%).
Delivering the right outcomes for education
Now more than ever, schools in the UK are facing pressing challenges, including record levels of persistent absence, increasing pupil needs relating to SEND and mental health concerns, widening social inequality gaps in attainment and a break in the social bond between schools and families as a long tail impact of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Interventions which utilise sport and physical activity can be a powerful tool to re-engage students in their learning and strengthen the bond between pupil and teacher. As a result of participating in one of our programmes in the last academic year, those involved reported the following results:
59%
young people reported that there was an increase in how much they feel they belong at their school
67%
practitioners reported positive impacts on young people’s behaviour at school
77%
practitioners reported positive impacts on young people’s engagement at school
Arman and Lucas won the Greatest Turnaround Through Sport Award at the 2023 Youth Sport Trust Young Changemaker Awards. Watch their video to learn more about how their engagement with school improved through the help of the Boys Move programme.
Reaching the right young people across all of our work
A key cornerstone of our strategy is ensuring that we reach more deeply into under-served communities and target the young people who are most likely to suffer from the impact of societal disadvantages.
We have been delivering upon this objective by sharpening the recruitment criteria for our programmes, and by forging new relationships with schools that serve young people in areas of need.
Over the last academic year, of the young people who accessed our programmes*:
44%
were Female (49% national average)
44%
had Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (18.4% national average)
41%
were from Ethnically Diverse Communities (37% national average)
34%
were eligible for Free School Meals (24.6% national average)
*These figures exclude the young people participating in the School Games programme (where demographic data is not available) and the young people participating in The FA Girls Football programme where the intentional gender-based targeting skews data significantly.
Whilst our reach into these groups (who have been selected as they typically are less physically active than others) over indexes against the national average, we recognise we must work harder and reach deeper if we are to deliver on the intent of our strategy to level the playing field for the most disadvantaged.
Focusing our work in areas of greatest need
The Youth Sport Trust remains committed to equipping educators and empowering young people across the country, but we recognise that there is a need to have a heightened understanding and focus on locations that serve young people where inequality of access to the benefits of play and sport is greatest.
To support these efforts, we identified 20 key focus areas across England, where, through a whole organisation commitment, we will concentrate our capacity and resources and establish an evidence base to inform action. These areas have been selected as a focus as they demonstrate:
-
high levels of childhood obesity
-
high levels of deprivation
-
low levels of participation in sport and physical activity
-
readiness to work with us
-
potential and/or existing collaborations
Driven by insight gathered through 161 visits to schools in these 20 areas, we are now working more intensively to build relationships, target programme recruitment, channel funded resources and raise funds through local commissioning and localised trust and foundations applications.
You can read more about what we discovered during our insight visits in our blog.
This work sits alongside our place-based pilots which are operational in three ward-level locations in the UK:
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Prescot, Knowsley
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Perry Barr, Birmingham
-
Stepney Green, London
In each of these locations over the past academic year, the Youth Sport Trust has been working to identify ‘Placemakers’ who are embedded within their local communities and have a deep understanding of the specific needs and barriers to participation in sport within them.
Youth Sport Trust has worked collaboratively with these Placemakers to map their local stakeholders and systems, in order to support the pilot development by providing access to learning, peer mentoring and funded programme delivery.
Diversifying our workforce
An important part of our ability to connect more deeply with communities in need is to ensure that our workforce is representative of the UK population so that we can bring lived experience and diversity of thought into all levels of the organisation from our board of trustees and our strategic leadership team, through to our wider staff group including our learning academy of tutors and athlete mentors.
The profile of leaders of the Youth Sport Trust, including our trustees, our youth board and our strategic leadership team in 2023/2024:
69%
Female (71% in 2022/2023)
13%
Special Education Needs and Disabilities (13% in 2022/2023)
40%
from Ethnically Diverse Communities (34% in 2022/2023)
The profile of the workforce of the Youth Sport Trust, including employees and the learning academy in 2023/2024:
64%
Female (66% in 2022/2023)
17%
Special Education Needs and Disabilities (16% in 2022/2023)
16%
from Ethnically Diverse Communities (19% in 2022/2023)
Read more about our Diversity Inclusion Action Plan, our diversity profile and our progress to date against the plan.
A core part of the work that the Youth Sport Trust undertakes to create change and increase opportunities is delivered through programmes. Below is a snapshot of some of the main programmes that the charity delivered over the past 12 months, and the impacts on the young people participating.
Delivering intensively to reach young people in greatest need
Set for Success
The Set for Success programme is a youth leadership initiative funded by the Wimbledon Foundation in partnership with Barclays and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust. Through sessions delivered by athlete mentors and teachers, active learning and sport, it supports participants to improve their employability skills, engagement and behaviour at school, and attitudes towards the future.
Thanks to increased investment, we were able to expand the programme to engage 529 young people from 51 schools. 51% of these young people were from low income families and 35% had additional support needs.
As a result of taking part in the programme, 87% of young people knew more about how their skills can help them in the future, 83% improved their resilience and 68% had improved motivation to learn at school.
Improving and preventing mental health issues in adolescence
Active in Mind
The Active in Mind programme is designed to support the mental health of adolescents.
It uses evidenced-based techniques to address stress and anxiety in young people, helps them build personal strategies for resilience and uses the power of peer mentoring through a trauma-informed approach.
During the 2023/2024 academic year, thanks to Sport England funding, 30 secondary schools took part in the programme involving 824 young people.
As a result of taking part in the programme, 69% of young people reported improved happiness, 66% reported improved resilience and 51% reported improved social connectedness.
Supporting employability in a local context
Generation Charnwood
Generation Charnwood is a collaboration between local educational establishments, employers and community partners in the borough of Charnwood, Leicestershire. It aims to develop the wellbeing, life chances and employability skills of young people within the borough, particularly those perceived to be in most need. The programme is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and is delivered jointly by Youth Sport Trust and Active Together.
During the 2023/2024 academic year, young people reported several positive outcomes following participation in the different elements of the programme. Due to taking part in the mentoring and social action projects element, young people recognised the development of key life and leadership skills.
Peter was involved in the Generation Charnwood programme. Through his connection with Youth Sport Trust Athlete Mentor Jade, he was able to find a new sense of belonging in school. Peter won the Greatest Turnaround through Sport Award at the 2024 Young Changemaker Awards.
Offering a wide range of experiences to all
Major League Baseball First Pitch
Major League Baseball (MLB) First Pitch is a programme that offers fun and inclusive resources to spark an interest in physical activity and sport through play and basic skill development.
During the 2023/2024 academic year, 496 schools and over 22,000 young people were engaged in the programme. Of these young people, 50% were from ethnically diverse communities, 36% were in receipt of free school meals and 15% had a special educational need or disability.
As a result of the programme, 98% of teachers reported improvements in young people’s enjoyment of taking part in sport, 94% reported improvements in young people’s confidence to take part in sport and physical activity and 88% reported improvements in young people’s connectedness to others.
The MLB First Pitch Baseball Programme had a significant role in the children's growth and development. By participating they gained: positive role models, improved physical health, instilled a lifelong habit of regular exercise, stress relief, improved self-esteem and self-worth, discipline and structure, learnt better teamwork, cooperation and communication.”
- Vicci Wells, Head of Sport at Youth Sport Trust
Supporting child development in the early years
Healthy Movers
Healthy Movers is a multi-component approach by the Youth Sport Trust to improve children’s physical development and, physical literacy as well as social and emotional wellbeing. The ethos of the programme is to support a child through the first 1001 days of their life, as the critical building blocks for lifelong emotional and physical health are laid down (HM Government, 2021).
A focus on physical development is considered crucial within early childhood education and care as part of a balanced routine and in support of overall developmental milestones (WHO, 2019).
The programme works with practitioners and parents to support children to be healthy and happy and make a good level of development across the early years foundation stage (EYFS) curriculum, thereby gaining a better start in life.
During the 2023/2024 academic year, we worked with local authority partners to train 846 practitioners to deliver the Healthy Movers programme and approach across 203 settings in Cornwall, Dorset, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Hartlepool, London, Milton Keynes, Wiltshire and Plymouth.
Based on an average of 35 children per setting participating in Heathy Movers sessions, this equates to an estimated 7,105 additional children supported in these areas over the course of this academic year alone.
Since the programme began in 2018, 1,361 practitioners have been trained across 468 settings, supporting at least 16,380 children. Based on data collected from Healthy Movers interventions so far, participating children have shown improvements in their object control, locomotion and stability, along with their confidence, engagement and motivation to take part in physical activity. These improvements have helped children to become more confident using outside play equipment, to sit with better posture, to put their coats on and to hold a pencil.
96%
of practitioners said that Healthy Movers had a very positive or positive impact on children’s enjoyment of physical activity
95%
of practitioners said that Healthy Movers had a very positive or positive impact on children’s physical skills
81%
of practitioners said that Healthy Movers had a very positive or positive impact on children’s communication and language
74%
of practitioners said that Healthy Movers had a very positive or positive impact on children’s school readiness
90%
of practitioners said that Healthy Movers had a very positive or positive impact on children’s relationships with other children
94%
of practitioners said that Healthy Movers had a very positive or positive impact on children’s happiness
Central Bedfordshire Children’s Centres won the ‘Outstanding Early Years Practice’ award at the 2024 Youth Sport Trust Conference Awards. Read more about how they adapted their delivery of Healthy Movers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Diversifying sports governance and talent pathways
Unified Action
As well as targeting our work more effectively and diversifying our workforce, we have been working to elevate the voices of young people to ensure that their views are represented in decision making.
Unified Action was a 12-month pilot research project, concluding in March 2024, which was created to diversify sports governance and build inclusive cultures within National Governing Bodies of Sport.
Led by eight young changemakers (aged 18-25), the project brought together ethnically diverse communities and underrepresented groups and empowered them to lead this research.
As a result, they developed a framework to build inclusive cultures within NGBs and deepen understanding of the barriers young people face in sport governance.
Learn more about the initiative and the young changemakers involved here.
School Games National Final 2024
At the end of the 2024 academic year, the Youth Sport Trust again hosted the School Games National Finals at Loughborough University. The biennial four-day multi-sport event for young athletes of school age was funded by Sport England National Lottery Funding and backed by all the Home Country Sports Councils and UK Sport.
In collaboration with National Governing Bodies and key stakeholders across the system, the Sport England Talent and Performance team and the Youth Sport Trust restructured the 2024 School Games National Finals programme. This redesign aims to better support two strategic objectives that are vital to those responsible for the sporting ecosystem across the UK:
- Providing positive experiences for children and young people – the Games sought to lead the way in demonstrating how this can be achieved through competitive sport and major events.
- Tackling inequalities by working with the sports to catalyse novel, contemporary approaches to broaden access to talent pathways for athletes from more diverse backgrounds.
2024 saw the National Finals debut of 3x3 basketball, the number one urban team sport in the world. Basketball in its most basic, accessible form; all competitors’ need is a hoop, a half-court and six players. In collaboration with British Wheelchair Basketball, multiple games were played on the same court alternately meaning the crowd were able to enjoy both competitions.
Balancing the demands of the digital age through the human connection of physical play and sport.
Trialling a new type of youth-led after-school sport club
Less than half of all children and young people in England are meeting the Chief Medical Officer's guidelines of taking part in sport and physical activity for an average of 60 minutes or more every day. More than half (51%) of children said they are playing outside with their friends less and a third (34%) said they are playing alone more. To tackle this lack of social connection through sport, the Youth Sport Trust developed a new youth-led and education-based ‘multi-sport’ club format which harnesses the power of sport for good in young people’s lives.
In April of 2024, the charity brought together over 100 young leaders from 20 schools at a 3-day residential camp. The camp involved the young leaders exploring non-typical sport formats, including frisbee and orienteering, alongside developing their own club blueprints.
These young leaders then went back to their school settings and developed their own multi-sport club concepts, collectively engaging 299 participants.
As a result of taking part in the multi-sport clubs, participants reported statistically significant increases in the amount of time they are active with others during the week. Improvements were also seen in their resilience (77%), social connectedness (82%), happiness (73%) and sense of belonging at school (60%).
Expanding our Youth Ambassadors programme
Young Ambassadors is a national movement, designed to empower young leaders to influence and inspire others through physical activity to create positive and meaningful change, build friendships and improve wellbeing.
In Scotland the programme is funded by the National Lottery and is a key part of sportscotland’s commitment to developing young leaders. Each year, two pupils from every secondary school in Scotland are selected as Young Ambassadors. In the 2023/2024 academic year, 619 Young Ambassadors (aged 14–16) attended regional conferences, representing 75.3% of Scotland’s secondary schools. They were supported by 314 mentors (Active Schools Coordinators).
Supporting the programme is the Young Ambassador Delivery Team - a group of 25 former Young Ambassadors (aged 17–19) who lead the programme’s future. They deliver workshops at regional conferences and create content such as blogs, videos and articles. You can follow their work on Instagram.
The Young Ambassadors Wales programme is delivered by the Youth Sport Trust on behalf of Sport Wales. In the 2023/2024 academic year:
- The Young Ambassadors programme ran in 713 schools in Wales
- 2,566 Young Ambassadors were trained through the programme, enhancing their skills and confidence
- 109,261 young people across Wales took part in an activity led by a Young Ambassador
- 29% of Young Ambassadors delivered activities to their peers in Welsh.
Over the last academic year, the Youth Sport Trust co-designed a refreshed version of the programme with a view to relaunching Young Ambassadors at scale across England.
The content was co-designed with 24 young people from 3 schools and then piloted in nine schools across Kent, Leicester and London (Brent).
During this first pilot, phase 90 young people were trained as Young Ambassadors, 77% of which were from ethnically diverse communities.
Over the next academic year, we are hoping to scale the pilot to train more Young Ambassadors in England.
Inclusive Youth Leadership
Inclusion 2024 is the umbrella term for the Youth Sport Trust delivery of an initiative that sits within the Department for Education SEND Inclusion in PE, School Sport and Physical Activity grant.
Over the course of three academic years of Inclusion 2024, the programme has worked with over 5,000 schools to deliver 2,800 activities involving 55,000 interactions with pupils, school staff and other participants.
Through the Youth Sport Trust Lead Inclusion School network, the programme aims to improve inclusive practice, network links and adaptability in delivering PESSPA to develop greater knowledge, competence, and confidence to provide meaningful and inclusive opportunities for young people with SEND.
Our third Inclusion 2024 Live week took place in January with over 800 people registered for the free sessions with access to SEND inclusion content, delivered by expert practitioners.
In March, Lead Inclusion School practitioner Jill Newbolt, who has worked with the Youth Sport Trust for over 12 years, received the ‘Building Brighter Futures’ award at the televised ‘Sport Gives Back’ Awards on ITV. Jill’s award was presented by National School Sport Champion, Sir Mo Farah, and former world javelin champion, Fatima Whitbread MBE.
Through investment from Inclusion 2024 we have also worked across 45 alternative provision schools to deliver the My Personal Best (My PB) programme which is based on integrating life skills development into PE for pupils attending Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) or Alternative provision (AP) settings. This has had proven success on attendance, engagement and behaviour for pupils involved.
Leveraging girl power to tackle the gender enjoyment gap
In October, on International Day of the Girl, we released the results of our 2023 Girls Active survey, which found that the PE ‘enjoyment gap’ is widening.
The survey, which has been running since 2016, and this year received responses from over 18,500 girls aged between 7 and 18, showed that girls' enjoyment of PE has dropped over the past six years, with only 64% of all girls enjoying PE in comparison to 86% of all boys.
You can read more about the findings of the survey and access the full results of the report.
Find out more about the Youth Sport Trust Girls Active programme and the barriers girls face in our Girls Active film.
Elevating Youth Voice to co-design solutions with young people
The Youth Sport Trust is committed to listening to young people and ensuring that Youth Voice is embedded across all areas and aspects of the organisation, from programme and events design and delivery, through to research and advocacy.
The Youth Sport Trust seeks ongoing guidance and support from a range of young people, including through the work of our Youth Board, the Youth Sport Trust Team Leaders, the National Youth Sport Forum, and the Youth Sport Trust annual Children and Young People’s Survey, the results of which feed into our Girls Active report and our annual PE and School Sport Report.
During 2024, the Youth Sport Trust Youth Board participated in a roundtable on youth sport and physical activity, hosted by the Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza. This roundtable was a component of The Big Ambition, a large-scale consultation which sought the views of children and young people on the most important issues for this generation ahead of the general election. Read more about what was discussed during the session.
Over the 2023/2024 academic year, we worked with groups of young people to co-design a Youth Voice plan. This plan outlines our key priorities for further integrating Youth Voice across the Youth Sport Trust, as well as how we will support organisations within the PE and school sport network to embed Youth Voice into their own programme designs and solutions. Watch our video which outlines what Youth Voice is and why it is so critical to our work to break down barriers to under represented groups.
Transform society’s perceptions and attitudes on the importance of physical literacy, sport and play in the education and development of young people.
Delivering competitive opportunities for all
Schools Games is funded by players of the National Lottery through Sport England, the Department for Health and Social Care and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
School Games make a positive and meaningful difference to the lives of children and young people through sport and physical activity, providing them with the opportunity to enjoy and learn through competition to achieve their personal best.
During the 2023/24 academic year, over 2 million participation opportunities were created for young people by the national network of over 450 School Games Organisers.
To celebrate the ongoing investment into the School Games, three School Games pledges were shared at the National School Games Summit in June 2023. These pledges set the national priorities for the 2023/2024 academic year of tackling inequalities, youth voice and physical literacy to ensure that through the School Games we hear the voices of those seldom heard to create a life long love of being active for those young people that will benefit the most who have been traditionally missing out.
Some of the systemic changes made to the School Games programme to support the delivery of these pledges includes:
- Deeper engagement with National Disability Sports Organisations including reviewing sports formats for accessibility and delivering workshops to upskill the network in delivering appropriate and meaningful opportunities for young people with SEND
- Deeper engagement with Pupil Referral Units (PRU) and Alternative Provision (AP), including specific development coach support and the creation of a good practice guide for engaging with AP
- Making the Inclusive Health Check a mandatory pre-requisite for any school achieving the school games mark. Over the last academic year 8,356 schools completed the Check.
During 2023/2024, 314 case studies into best practice were published on the School Games website. Here are three examples of the work that SGOs have done in response to the three pledges in the last year.
Tackling inequalities
One School Games Organiser (SGO) aimed to increase the number of children hitting the CMO recommendation of 60 active minutes per day by targeting young people from ethnically diverse communities in Birmingham, a high proportion of which had a first language other than English, who faced challenges relating to high levels of deprivation.
The SGO assessed that many children in the local area had barriers to sports which may traditionally not have been as accessible to them and did not receive regular high-quality coaching. Families were also not often involved in regular physical activity with their children.
The SGO partnered with Sport for Life International to secure funding for regular tennis coaching within the area with the intent of 'Building Character through Tennis (BCtT) and breaking down barriers to entry into tennis/education. The project engaged over 161 young people each week, 85% of whom had never picked up a racket before.
Read more here.
Physical literacy
The primary school workforce plays a vital role in providing positive experiences of physical activity and movement. However, after speaking with primary PE lead teachers about their understanding of Physical Literacy, one SGO found It was clear that not everyone understood what was meant by the term physical literacy and innovation was needed to enable more young people in the borough to enjoy movement in their everyday life.
This SGO in Oldham offered free staff inset training to schools in the area, specifically targeted to schools who had little to no prior engagement in the School Games Programme. The training in an active schools' approach, 60 active minutes and physical literacy was ultimately delivered to 100 members of staff across 11 schools. At the end of the training staff left with a digital resource on their phone including a raft of playground games which require no equipment to facilitate.
The training allowed the SGO to form relationships with schools who had not engaged in School Games before, encouraging the workforce to use their own reflection on their relationship with movement. This has ensured that the opportunities provided in schools not only create meaning, value and joy to the young people participating, but those delivering the opportunities would feel confident and motivated to provide these experiences too.
Read more here.
Youth Voice
In Leeds, a Youth Voice Festival involving pupils from across six schools was developed to gather insights from target groups including KS2, young people from ethnically diverse communities, young people with SEND and girls.
The insight gather was used to inform the year’s competition provision and ensure content delivered is designed 'by the young people for the young people'. This event will be replicated in future years to ensure provision remains current.
Read more about the event and the insight gathered here.
Ellie attends an alternative provision setting and is a leader in the School Games programme. Ellie won the Inspirational Inclusive Leader award at the Youth Sport Trust Young Changemaker Awards 2024.
Ensuring more girls have access to football
Funded by The FA and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, Girls’ Football in Schools is a framework delivered locally by a national network of over 300 local partnerships and tailored programmes, working to achieve the ambition that every girl will have equal access to football in school by 2024.
For the four year period from 2020/2021 to 2023/2024, together with The FA and Barclays, Youth Sport Trust have administered a national school survey to measure girls’ access to football. Over this period, the number of schools providing equal access to football for girls in the curriculum has risen from 63% to 77%, with 85% of primary schools affording girls equality of football access in PE lessons.
“There’s no question that in the last four years, we have made significant and tangible progress across every aspect of women’s and girls’ football, but there is no room for complacency – we must strive to reach higher. Although diversity within the women’s game is improving, we must double our efforts to ensure every girl and woman feels they are welcome within the football family, whether as players, coaches, officials or leaders. We can be proud of what has been achieved to date, but now is the time to refocus our priorities so we can unlock the true potential of women’s and girls’ football.”
- Baroness Sue Campbell, former Director of Women’s Football at the FA and founder of the Youth Sport Trust.
Read more about the FA’s Reaching Higher strategy which outlines their plan to expand the women’s game over the next four years.
Evidencing the need for change
The Youth Sport Trust Research and Insight team are at the forefront of evidencing the societal impact of PE, sport and play alongside shaping evidence-based approaches to creating systemic change so that all young people can access the life-changing benefits.
New analysis developed by the team released during Mental Health Awareness Week was able to put an economic value on the critical importance of free-to-access school sport and physical activity for a child’s mental wellbeing.
Using the new Treasury recommended measure of wellbeing - the WELLBY - the economic value of providing physical activity in primary schools was found to be at least £4bn. Furthermore, the wellbeing impact of physical activity at school is almost double for children who are disabled and/or receiving free school meals than for those who are not.
The Youth Sport Trust’s latest annual PE and School Sport Report highlighted the issues facing children and young people today and the importance of taking urgent action. Supported by new research among teachers and parents, it continues to be a valuable source of evidence for use across the sector alongside our 'Knowledge Bank' and factsheets.
Also, this year, supported by Sport England System Partner funding, the Youth Sport Trust has been committed to gaining a deeper insight into the provision of the physical education curriculum in alternative provision including settings such as pupil referral units (PRUs), alternative provision academies, free schools, and hospital schools.
There are increasing numbers of children and young people with mental health needs in alternative provision, and there is a growing recognition that pupils’ mental health and wellbeing influences their educational attainment. Importantly, sport and physical activity provided through PE may offer a viable means to reengage disaffected youth in learning and development. However, previous understanding of physical education offerings in alternative provision was limited, including knowledge of pupil experience, staff training, and subject resources.
Working closely with Leeds Beckett University and Loughborough University, we have mapped the provision of physical education and sport in alternative provision schools in England and captured the voice of children/young people and key stakeholders to gain insights about the nature, purpose and value of physical education and sport. This work has resulted in the publication of four journals including this article in the British Educational Research Journal.
Working to influence government
We continued our work to influence PE and school sport policy development and implementation across government and more widely. In addition to our manifesto launch setting out our vision for the future, we helped inform new PE guidance from the Department for Education, including encouraging a focus on equal access and Youth Voice.
We responded to consultations from government departments, Parliamentary select committees and All-Party Parliamentary Groups, and our Chief Executive gave evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Our approach included giving our networks, stakeholders and children and young people an integral role in sharing their experiences and insights, to ensure we could be a strong voice on behalf of the sector.
We delivered visits and hosted meetings with high-profile voices across the political spectrum including Bridget Phillipson, Lucy Frazer, Catherine McKinnell, Damian Hinds, Stephanie Peacock and Stuart Andrew. We supported our Youth Board’s roundtable with the Children’s Commissioner and key government departments, exploring how to increase physical activity levels.
Our work helped encourage political parties to put forward ideas to improve children’s wellbeing through play and sport in their manifestos ahead of the election. Soon afterwards, we began working with the new government to ensure children’s needs are reflected in policy making.
Raising awareness among parents
Insights gathered in the latest PE and School Sport Report found that neither parents nor teachers are aware of the amount of physical activity children should be doing daily, as recommended by the Chief Medical Officer.
As of 2024, only 30% of teachers and 31% of parents were aware that children should be active for an hour every day. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sport England’s Active Lives survey found that fewer than half of all children (48%) met this minimum level of activity in 2023/2024.
That is why in January of this year, we announced Sir Mo Farah as Youth Sport Trust National School Sport Champion and launched ‘Mo’s Mission’ to raise awareness of the fact that every young person needs to be active for at least ’60 minutes a day of PE, Sport and Play.’
The launch of Mo’s Mission ran alongside the launch of our manifesto for change, calling for a new, long-term joined-up national plan guaranteeing every child access to PE, sport and play by creating a nation of active and well schools. Before launching the manifesto to a cross-party group of MPs and peers, Sir Mo and our Chief Executive Ali Oliver MBE met with Sir Keir Starmer to emphasise the need to make children’s physical activity levels a priority across government.
National School Sports Week 2024 saw another record year for registrations with over 4,250 schools across the week signing up to participate. The week saw young people get active for 60 minutes a day by taking part in Monster Kickabout sessions and other sporting activities.
Throughout the week we were joined by sporting superstars, Athlete Mentors and Champions, as well as Youth Board members, Young Changemaker Award winners and some of our fabulous team leaders at events in schools. As the week was powered by Sport Direct's Monster Kickabout, the highlight of the week for many of the students, was a visit from Marley the Monster who took part in penalty shootouts and offered encouragement to take part in 60 minutes a day, of PE, sport and play!
Ouskh was awarded the National School Sports Week Hero Award, sponsored by Sports Direct, at the 2024 Young Changemaker Awards, for his extraordinary leadership and supporting others through sport.
Strengthening the sector
During the 2023/24 academic year, we continued our work as the convenor for over 100 participating organisations of the School Sport and Activity Sector Partnership.
The partnership was established five years ago in response to the publication of the School Sport and Activity Action Plan in 2019 and remains in place today to unite and amplify the voice of the sector, foster collaboration and drive collective action to shape the future of PE, school sport and physical activity while engaging with government stakeholders to influence positive change.
During the September 2024 School Sport and Activity Sector Partnership Summit, the sector developed a series of pledges to drive collaborative actions on key sector challenges:
To take collective, direct action to better understand and tackle systemic challenges in our sector so that every young person can benefit from the positive outcomes that participation in PE, school sport and physical activity offers
To use the strength of our united voice to provide consistency of understanding to advocate for the place of positive outcomes from PE, school sport and physical activity in schools and its importance to every young person’s personal development, health and wellbeing
To improve the sector from within by networking, sharing best practice and providing a supportive environment for all sector parties to thrive to better provide for young people and educators
Read more about the pledges and what sits within them and watch the highlights from the 2024 summit.
In addition, as a member of the National Sector Partners Group we have continued to work collaboratively to improve the operating landscape for the sector, seeking to embed sport, recreation and physical activity as a key contributor to wider public policy objectives.
Youth Sport Trust International
Youth Sport Trust International is a sport for development charity and is the international arm of the Youth Sport Trust. Youth Sport Trust International delivered training in different countries across three continents in the last academic year - Europe, Asia and Africa. Immediate impact and long-term sustainability are the two key goals which characterise the Youth Sport Trust International’s work to enhance the life chances of young people through PE, sport and play.
Africa
The four-year Beckwith International Leadership Development (BILD) programme launched in Malawi aims to empower local communities through sport. Youth Sport Trust International trainers upskilled 18 local teachers, mentoring them to train 20 young people as sports leaders. These leaders applied their coaching and organisational skills to run a festival for 100 school children at Bhubesi Pride Foundation’s facility. This cascade training model will continue to expand, reaching 13,000 young people and strengthen leadership capacity within the country.
Nike contracted Youth Sport Trust International to train a network of Coach Educators in South Africa to empower them to make effective use of Nike coaching resources and to deliver positive play experiences to children in schools and sports clubs in Johannesburg.
Europe
We continued our work for Nike to implement a coach development programme across six European cities by providing learning opportunities for a network of Coach Educators to grow their skills and drive the adoption of Nike fuelled coaching resources. We also led positive play sessions in Amsterdam, Paris and London in our role as a delivery partner for the Nike Community Ambassador programme.
As partners in two Erasmus + sport funded projects, we developed training resources for an intergenerational project, Generations Uniting through Sport, and a project to increase physical activity in schools, Moving Schools Challenger.
For further information, contact Youth Sport Trust International.
Asia
Our capacity building programme to improve the teaching of PE in Karachi, Pakistan continued with the training of 17 teachers identified as having the necessary knowledge, interest, motivation and potential to become trainers themselves. Now named Jawaan Champions and funded by the Rangoonwala Foundation, the PE and sport competition programme which Youth Sport Trust International helped to establish has reached 260 schools and 82,000 students.
In partnership with teamArchie and Alsama Cricket, Youth Sport Trust International developed a scholarship opportunity for two young cricket coaches, one male and one female, to travel to Beirut, Lebanon in October 2023 to deliver cricket coaching to refugees living in the camps there.
On behalf of Nike, we hosted an incoming visit to the UK by a delegation of primary PE teachers from China who were recipients of the Nike Active Schools Innovation Award. We facilitated visits to a number of PE schools so that they could learn more about PE and sport in the UK as well as share traditional games from China.
Our income 2023/24
The income below relates to the financial year 2023/2024 which ended 31 March 2024.
Read our full annual report and financial statement.
Our income 2022/23
Our full annual report and financial statement for 2022/23 is available here.
Thank you to our Funders and Partners
A special thank you to the National Lottery for the funding from our partnership with Sport England which continues to support our work, making a difference to children’s lives on a huge scale.
Strategic Partnerships
Activity Alliance
Active Partnerships
ASK Research Partners
Association of School and College Leaders
Association for Physical Education
British Paralympic Association
Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC)
Confederation of School Trusts
Leadership Skills Foundation
Leeds Beckett University
Loughborough University
Nasen (National Association for Special Educational Needs)
NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit
PRUsAP
Schools Active Movement
Sheffield Hallam University
Sport and Recreation Alliance
Sport England
Sport for Development Coalition
Sporting Equals
The University of Manchester
Women in Sport
Trust and Foundations
Chance to Shine Foundation
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
John Armitage Charitable Trust
Wimbledon Foundation
The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington
The Julia & Hans Rausing Trust
British Olympic Foundation
Garfield Weston
Fundraising and Donations
Citron Hygiene
Foresters Friendly Society
Athletic Peanut Butter Ltd
Meet for Good
Viridian
The estate of Ann Jessie Griffiths
We are Romans
Corporate Partners
Barclays
Complete P.E.
Enrich Education
Kingswood
The LEGO Group
Lidl Ireland
Ladies Gaelic Football Association
Limitless
Allianz UK
Ortus Energy
Sports Direct
Sports Directory
Local Government Contracts
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council
Bedfordshire
Cornwall Council
Dorset Council
East Suffolk Council
Hartlepool Borough Council
Hull County Council
Milton Keynes
Plymouth
Wiltshire Council
Commissioned Work
Active Essex
Active Partnerships
BaseballSoftball UK
Charnwood Borough Council
Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Department for Education
The FA
Football Association of Wales
The Lawn Tennis Association
The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation
Major League Baseball Europe Ltd
Nike
Rugby Football Union
SportScotland
Sport Wales
Teach First
Wales FA Trust