The Mental Health Through Movement report celebrates the many fantastic ways that movement in all its forms is being realised.

The new report from the APPG outlines the Youth Sport Trust’s flagship Girls Active programme funded by Sport England through the National Lottery and supported by This Girl Can and Women in Sport.

It states that Girls Active is as an evidenced based approach to improving girls’ wellbeing and understanding what motivates them to move more.

In response, the Youth Sport Trust has praised the report for outlining practical ways that schools can help to tackle declining wellbeing in young people through PE, school sport and movement.

Stuart Kay, Schools Director at the charity, said:

This report is published at a time when too many children are struggling with declining wellbeing. It comes as no surprise that getting children to move more has a positive influence on not only their mental health but their overall wellbeing.

Movement is one of the key threads that binds all aspects of wellbeing – the physical, social and emotional. We know from Sport England’s Active Lives research that only one in five young people are active for 60 minutes every day. Our research complements other research, including Professor John Ratey’s, which has shown that increased physical activity levels can lead to improvements in other outcomes such as improved communication skills, self-confidence and happiness levels.

For more information about the Youth Sport Trust’s Girls Active programme visit www.youthsporttrust.org/girls-active