ParalympicsGB urges action for 75% of disabled children not doing PE regularly

ParalympicsGB has urged the government to commit to ensuring “every child has the same access to physical education”, against the background of just a quarter of the 1.5 million schoolchildren with disabilities regularly taking part in PE.

As Britain enjoys another rush of gold medals in the opening days of the Paris Paralympic Games, the British national Paralympic committee has set out an ambitious programme for reforming the way PE is taught in schools, asking for greater emphasis on physical activity for all and greater resourcing to make it happen.

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David Clarke, the ParalympicsGB chief executive, discussed the new strategy, known as Equal Play, in a meeting with Keir Starmer, the prime minister, in Paris last week.

It is a plan developed in conjunction with education experts, academics and athletes and has four key points: a greater importance on physical education within the national curriculum; adapting teacher training to increase understanding on the needs of disabled children; a new focus on inclusion within school sport; and more disabled teachers within the workforce.

“Sport and PE at school needs to be a statutory right for all children and the people delivering it need to have the support, education and training to deliver it inclusively,” Clarke said.

“Play is fundamental to children’s happiness, allowing them to have fun while they develop motor skills, build confidence, and improve physical and mental health. Disabled children deserve the same access to physical education in schools as their non‑disabled counterparts, and structural change is needed to support schools to enable this.”

While PE is a compulsory part of the school curriculum, there is only guidance as to how that requirement should be implemented. Concerns that PE is subsequently often considered a second-order subject, leading to a shortage of physical activity among schoolchildren, is a concern held by groups across the UK. But the issue is only further compounded for children with disabilities. The Equality Act requires schools to make “reasonable adjustments” to include disabled children, but research by the charity Activity Alliance has found just 25% of disabled children regularly take part in PE, compared with 41% of their non-disabled classmates.

ParalympicsGB has become more vocal on issues of social inclusion for disabled people and believes this lack of access is akin to further discrimination against some of the most vulnerable people in society. Structural reform, they argue, can benefit everyone, however, with research by the Youth Sport Trust suggesting physical activity in schools delivers between £4.5bn and £9bn in wellbeing benefits.

“We want the government to commit to ensuring every child has the same access to, and experience of, physical education,” the Equal Play policy argues. “By the Los Angeles Paralympic Games, we want to see systemic change.”