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There are many ways in which people use digital on the journey to being active, but this can be challenging for those lacking access, skills or confidence to use online platforms.

Our new research explores these barriers and recommends actions for making sport and physical activity more digitally accessible.

But think about the last time you decided to try a new sport or activity.

The role of ‘digital’ in being active

Chances are you used the internet in one or more ways: to look for opportunities, to book and pay for a session, to plan travel to the venue, to participate in an online exercise session or to communicate with others about the activity.

‘Digital’ is now so entwined with the way we access and participate in physical activity that it’s hard to imagine being active without it.

In fact, in a recent Sport England Activity Check-in survey (Wave 19), 67% of respondents said they use digital tools to find out information about sport and physical activity.

At Good Things Foundation, we are committed to ensuring everyone can participate in our digital society, but there are still many people who face barriers to being online.

According to Lloyds' Essential Digital Skills 2025 report, around eight million people lack foundational-level digital skills in the UK, while data provided by Ofcom, the communications regulator in the UK, reveals that over a quarter of households struggled to afford mobile data and/or broadband in 2025.

Our 2025 desk research with Sport England showed that groups facing digital barriers also face inequalities in being active, so understanding how digital shapes participation is crucial to ensuring opportunities are inclusive and accessible for all.

Understanding digital barriers

We recently partnered again with Sport England to extend our research to better understand the experiences of people trying to be active when struggling with digital access and/or digital skills.

We also identified examples of good practice for reducing digital barriers from organisations supporting people with digital and physical activity.

Our research highlights four types of digital barriers that can make it difficult for people to be active:

• Access: not being able to afford mobile data, wifi connections and/or not having access to a suitable digital device.
• Skills and confidence: lacking skills to search for/or access information online and/or finding it hard to use different apps and platforms.
• Trust and safety: worrying about booking and paying online, and/or lacking trust in the reliability of information online.
• User experience: language and/or accessibility needs, which for many makes it harder to use online platforms, and/or poor user experience including a lack of relevant information on digital platforms.

Take Ewa, for example, who told us that she loves to be active but who, due to confidence and English language barriers, struggles to go online to find out information about suitable local opportunities.

She relies on support from a local community organisation and from her young son to help her access information and book sessions, such as at the local swimming pool because, as she shared: “If it is online, I have to ask someone to help me. I don’t feel confident doing this myself.”

Recommended steps

Our research also highlighted great examples of how organisations are taking steps to support digital inclusion in order to help people participate in sport and physical activity, with recommend actions such as:

• build understanding of digital barriers: embed simple questions on digital barriers, like the Indicators of Digital Inclusion, into customer or population surveys to understand needs and design sport and physical activity services accordingly
• provide or signpost to local, trusted support for digital help, like organisations in the National Digital Inclusion Network building digital access and skills among local communities
• make it easier for people to use online platforms: sport and physical activity platforms should be designed with the needs of people with low digital skills in mind. Besides, non-digital pathways for information (such as printed leaflets) and booking options should also be provided
• build partnerships for place-based support: as digital barriers are not limited to the sport and physical activity sector, collaboration across local systems like the health and social prescribing services or the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector can help build digital capability.

A call for a digitally inclusive sector

Digital should be an enabler – not a barrier – to being active, so by understanding and addressing digital barriers we can ensure that everyone has the same opportunities for participating in sport and physical activity.

While many people still struggle with digital access and skills, our new research shows that organisations across the sport and physical activity sector can take action to make their services more digitally accessible.

Sport England has a critical role in this space too and by continuing to raise awareness of digital exclusion across the sector, championing best practices and raising expectations for commissioning inclusive services, they can ensure digital inclusion is baked into all sport and physical activity from the beginning and not just as an afterthought.

That is why we are so excited about the recent launch of NHS England’s four ways forward, which aim to empower and support NHS leaders, managers and HCPs to unlock the protective power of physical activity to improve patient care and deliver NHS priorities. 

Supporting the four ways forward 

Sport England, alongside the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and NHS Horizons, have supported NHS England in developing these as a route to going further and faster in integrating physical activity within and alongside routine NHS care.

This approach is built upon strong evidence and significant progress to date, blending local and national-led action to spread good practice across England.

Lots of our work with partners is already supporting the delivery of these four ways:

Empowering health and care professionals

• We’ve supported training and education with the Physical Activity Clinical Champion Programme being accessed by over 56,000 HCPs; with 54,600 modules on physical activity completed on the British Medical Journal e-learning platform; with initiatives like This Mum Moves, which has trained 900 health and physical activity ambassadors who’ve then cascaded the training to colleagues and partners; and with the award-winning Moving Medicine platform, which has enabled over 308,000 HCPs to confidently discuss physical activity with patients.
• Our work with partners has also facilitated change with The Active Hospital toolkit that has been developed to help NHS Hospital Trusts to integrate physical activity into secondary care pathways, and the We Are Undefeatable campaign that has been successfully changing the narrative on being active with long-term health conditions.

Integrating physical activity into clinical pathways

• We have supported a range of place partners to integrate physical activity into healthcare, with programmes like Sheffield’s Move More Connect to bring health to communities. We have also worked across Tees Valley, including PrepWell to support perioperative care and the Flippin Pain campaign to support people living with chronic pain. We're supporting Wellbeing Exeter, an initiative that connects physical activity into social prescribing approaches in Exeter and Cranbook, and we are also working with partners to integrate physical activity into NHS Talking Therapies to use physical activity to improve mental health.
• Led by the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine, the Active Partnership National Organisation and supported by Move Consulting, work is underway to enable supportive patient-centred pathways between healthcare and physical activity opportunities that remove the barriers associated with the perceptions of risk when getting active with long-term health conditions.  

Supporting the NHS workforce to gain the benefits of physical activity

• According to the latest data, 462 GP practices have received the Royal College of GPs Active Practice Charter accreditation in recognition of utilising physical activity to support staff and patient health and wellbeing.
• Many sport and physical activity partners provide discounted membership rates to NHS colleagues, e.g. local authority leisure offers.

Supporting innovation and evaluation with partners 

This is achieved through collaboration between health and physical activity partners to influence the provision, access to and use of local assets and facilities.

• The Sport for Confidence Prevention and Enablement model evaluation report concluded that the positive impact of their innovative approach to embedding physical activity into a whole-system approach to adult health and social care could deliver £58.72 of social value per pound invested.
• Active Dorset are working with their integrated care system and public health partners to build physical activity into the county’s approach to integrated population health-data management.

Looking ahead

With physical activity’s brilliant infrastructure and a new NHS policy context, the publication of the NHS four ways forward enables us to accelerate cross-sector collaboration and spread good practice – particularly through place-based action between our sector (including active partnerships, local authorities, leisure providers and community sport) and integrated care boards, acute trusts, integrated neighbourhood teams, primary care networks and GP practices.

We have a prime opportunity to get this right – amplifying impact on the health and wealth of the nation and focusing support on those that would benefit the most.

Doing so will create an NHS fit for the future, empower communities and ensure physical activity is a must-have for all of us and for future generations.