Yesterday we published the final report for Impact ’25 programme, our Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 legacy programme.
The programme was delivered by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in partnership with the UK government, Sport England and UK Sport.
Backed by £14.55 million of government investment, and driven by the incredible commitment of clubs, volunteers, coaches, match officials and players, Impact '25 has helped transform opportunities for women and girls across England.
It goes without saying that a key strand of the work was getting more women and girls into playing rugby. But that wasn’t our only focus.
We wanted to encourage and support more women to get into coaching, match official and leadership positions, and to invest in club facilities to improve the experiences for women and girls involved in rugby.
We also aimed to use the opportunity of the World Cup to connect communities and welcome new fans to the sport we love and to support the development of high-performance pathways in Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
We wanted to transform the sport for women and girls.
Around 40,000 girls aged six to 12 were introduced to rugby.
Girls' club participation has increased by 49%, growing from around 18,000 to 26,800 players, and women's participation at supported universities has risen by 38%.
More than 5,400 coaching and match official courses have been completed by women, with nearly a third funded through Impact '25.
Women now account for 28% of newly qualified coaches and match officials, compared to just 9% before the programme, and the number completing advanced coaching and refereeing qualifications has increased more than five-fold.
Thanks to the programme, 607 clubs received 1,078 facility grants between them.
These grants were used to develop or upgrade changing rooms, upgrade toilets, refurbish social spaces, enhance female sanitary provisions at clubs, or to make other improvements that could create a more female-friendly club environment.
These things really matter as they directly impact the experiences of women and girls involved in the sport and their sense of belonging.
We also aimed to use the opportunity of the World Cup to connect communities and welcome new fans to the sport we love and to support the development of high-performance pathways in Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
There is a huge amount to celebrate with Impact ’25. But we can’t stop there.
Through Every Rose: Our Time, the RFU's five-year action plan published shortly after last year’s Women’s World Cup, we set an ambitious target of reaching 100,000 active female players by 2030, including 70,000 club-registered players.
Last year, almost 48,000 women and girls were playing at rugby clubs across England, and now schools, colleges and universities will play a critical role in reaching that ambition in the next four years.
Our growing workforce across the education sector is introducing more young people to the game through T1 Rugby, an accessible non-contact format that retains the unique characteristics of rugby union while providing an easy entry point into the sport.
Partnerships with organisations such as Scouts and Guides are helping us reach new audiences, while the growth in girls' and women's sections at rugby clubs means there are now more opportunities than ever for participants to continue their rugby journey.
Alongside participation growth, we are committed to ensuring women and girls can thrive in the game.
And our work on female health and wellbeing continues to develop.
This summer we announced a landmark partnership with Women in Sport and became the first major British sport to launch a standalone anti-sexism and misogyny policy, part of a broader commitment to making rugby safer, more inclusive and more welcoming.
The success of Impact '25, and what’s been happening since, demonstrate what can be achieved when different organisations and the wider community game come together behind a shared vision to drive the women’s and girls’ games forward.
We’re hugely grateful to Sport England for their involvement in Impact ’25 and value their ongoing support.
There remains huge potential in women’s and girls’ rugby, and we must not take our foot off the pedal.
I’ve never heard anyone say “I wish my child had more screen time”.
But a clip from BBC Breakfast over the summer provided an interesting insight about what time in front of a screen can mean to some children and young people.
On the clip, we heard a girl respond to what she would do with the nine hours she typically spends online over a weekend if proposed social media restrictions for under-16s came into force.
Her answer was bold, unequivocal and somehow devastating: "…stare at a wall."
It was a funny moment, but it also pointed to something deeper.
The Youth Matters: State of the Nation survey gathered insights from more than 14,000 young people aged 11-25 and it paints a concerning picture.
The study highlights that despite being the most digitally connected generation ever, many young people are experiencing loneliness, poor wellbeing and social disconnection.
Yet their message about what would improve their lives is clear: access to safe spaces, trusted adults, better mental health support and more opportunities to take part in activities that help them connect, develop and belong.
This is why last week’s government announcement on enrichment deserves attention, as there’s a growing recognition of the role enrichment can play in supporting young people's wellbeing, development and life chances.
Enrichment refers to activities and experiences beyond the formal curriculum.
‘Sport and physical activity’ is recognised as one of five core enrichment categories, alongside arts and culture, civic engagement, nature and outdoor learning, and wider life and future skills.
At its best, enrichment does far more than keeping children and young people occupied.
It helps them discover interests, build confidence, develop relationships and gain skills that support them throughout life.
For many young people, particularly those facing disadvantage, these opportunities can be transformational.
Importantly, enrichment is increasingly being recognised not as an optional extra, but as a key part of supporting children and young people's development and wellbeing.
Despite being the most digitally connected generation ever, many young people are experiencing loneliness, poor wellbeing and social disconnection.
In June, the Department for Education published the enrichment framework for schools and colleges, which provides schools with non-statutory guidance on creating high-quality enrichment offers.
Built around eight benchmarks, the framework reflects principles that many across the youth, education and sport sectors have long championed, including:
Alongside the framework, the government has recently announced the Enrichment Expansion programme, backed by £22.5m and delivered via a cross-sector partnership led by the Youth Sport Trust.
The programme will support around 400 secondary schools to strengthen and co-ordinate their enrichment offer, with a particular focus on developing partnerships with local providers and community organisations.
The Enrichment Expansion programme sits within a wider package of investment designed to improve opportunities for children and young people.
This includes Every Child Can, a £132.5 million programme funded through dormant assets that will support enrichment opportunities across England, which includes after school, at weekends and during school holidays.
These developments align with the ambition within the National Youth Strategy to halve the participation gap in enrichment activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers by 2035.
Alongside wider investment in youth services, facilities and trusted adult relationships, these announcements represent a strong signal that enrichment is moving towards the centre of policy discussions about young people's wellbeing and future prospects.
For those working across sport and physical activity, these announcements are very welcome and recognise that sport is about far more than participation.
High-quality experiences of sport and physical activity can help young people build confidence, develop meaningful social connections, enhance their wellbeing, build valuable life skills, and establish a positive lifelong relationship with movement and physical activity, which we describe as physical literacy.
However, this should not be viewed simply as a challenge to create more opportunities.
The real opportunity is to ensure experiences are meaningful, inclusive, shaped around young people's needs and embedded within the local community.
The strongest enrichment offers will be those that bring together schools, youth services, clubs and community organisations around a shared goal: helping young people feel safe, connected and valued.
If the debate about social media has highlighted anything, it is that simply taking something away is not enough. Young people need compelling alternatives.
A positive experience of being active is something that all young people should have and, if we get it right, perhaps fewer young people will feel that their only alternative to being online is staring at a wall.
The government is investing £22.5m in enrichment activities for young people at more than 400 secondary schools in disadvantaged communities.
Children and young people
Funding
Government
Lower socio-economic groups
If you type National Lottery into any internet search engine, you’ll immediately be greeted with the strapline 'Changing Lives Every Day'.
And while for most, immediate thoughts might turn to the joy of winning a life-changing jackpot, for nearly 20 years I have been privileged to work at the heart of an organisation that distributes Good Causes funding.
This has allowed me to see every day how National Lottery money helps people and communities change lives.
In Sport England’s investment management team, we recognise how lucky we are to have a role that supports organisations and communities to make a positive difference through National Lottery funding.
And we also accept the responsibility and diligence that comes with the role, given that we are investing lottery players’ and public money.
Every day we see the very best of our communities – in the ideas that they talk to us about, in the applications that they send to us and through the impact their funded projects have.
And as the total number of people reached by projects funded by the Movement Fund nears 500,000, it is evident how National Lottery funding is helping communities become more active every day.
In Sport England’s investment management team, we recognise how lucky we are to have a role that supports organisations and communities to make a positive difference through National Lottery funding.
Making it easier for everybody to apply for Sport England funding is a key pledge in our Uniting the Movement strategy.
The Movement Fund now operates with more open and less restrictive criteria, and it has become a single point of entry for grants and crowdfunding opportunities.
Applicants also have clearer expectations of our process and, as a result, we’re seeing National Lottery funding support a diverse range of projects.
Whether we're talking about first-time applicants, organisations that have received funding before or organisations that are brand new or well-established, the Movement Fund is helping more communities access the funding to make their projects a reality.
Like Par Track, which was awarded £10,000 to professionally deep clean and reline Cornwall's only UK Athletics licensed athletics track, helping them sustain opportunities for athletics, but also to support people of all ages to be active and to come together as a community.
The simplicity and openness of our Movement Fund is giving communities and organisations the freedom to identify local needs and to bring forward their own ideas too, enabling us to get National Lottery funding to where it is needed the most.
And 72% of funded projects through the Movement Fund are reaching people who are less likely to be active and that are in places where more need exists.
Funding is also helping organisations break down barriers to physical activity in their communities.
For example, Dance Mojo have been able to expand their Zumba sessions and have more impact in their community through their National Lottery funding support.
Additional targeted sessions have also helped the organisation remove financial barriers to participation, enabling people experiencing financial hardship or accessibility challenges to access tailored activities that otherwise would have been out of reach.
Within the investment management team, we try to spend as much time as possible talking with the communities and visiting them too.
Whether that’s attending local events and funding fairs, or working with trusted local partners to share information and data about what we fund and where it goes.
Since January our dedicated investment advisers have had more than 38,500 interactions with people contacting our funding advice service for support and guidance.
Meeting more people and their communities where they are at, helps us understand their needs and it ensures we fund projects that provide opportunities for people to be themselves, like the activities delivered by The Joshua Tree.
Their National Lottery funding has enabled them to offer an inclusive physical activity and wellness programme for children and families affected by cancer, giving children a sense of their childhood back.
Something that’s key, because as explained by the organisation:
“When a child’s life is filled with hospitals (…) and worry, the opportunity to feel in control of their body, use it positively, and experience joy and confidence is incredibly powerful."
National Lottery funding really makes a huge difference by helping people feel welcome, confident, connected and able to take part in sport and physical activity in ways that work and matter to them.
This is why, every day, we feel privileged to play our part in turning lottery players’ contributions into opportunities that help communities change lives.
Last week I finally plucked up courage to have my BioAge measured at an EGYM showroom by St Paul's Cathedral, London.
I still have an inbuilt phobia of getting things checked out, even when there’s nothing to worry about, and I was very pleased to learn that my BioAge (that is how old my organs are compared to the numbers of birthdays I've celebrated so far) is in fact 37-years-old – a good 16 years younger than my actual age.
By coincidence, 37 was the exact age when I started my fitness journey.
Having not exercised since school, I’d gradually put on a few pounds every year and a heath check had told me I was on the borderline of being obese.
I’d signed up my old team at 20th Century Fox to an ambitious team challenge – to climb 20 peaks across the Lake District over 20 hours – and didn’t want to be the 'overweight managing director' holding people back!
And just as that experience was the kick off for me, this National Fitness Day we’re looking to welcome millions to start, or restart, their fitness journey.
Reflecting on the EGYM experience, there’s so much more to fitness than simply losing weight and also so many ways to measure success.
There’s strength, mobility and, most importantly, how you feel both physically and mentally.
These days we have the technology and insight to help people with personalised training plans that are right for them, and with so many ways to get moving.
A few weeks ago, I was inspired by a member of the team who’d taken his daughter on her first parkrun, and I decided to take may own teenage daughter out for her debut parkrun in Cheltenham.
It was great to see such an eclectic range of people out early(ish) on a Saturday morning, to run without fear of judgement or failure, just to be out there being active.
This National Fitness Day we’re looking to welcome millions to start, or restart, their fitness journey.
Our research shows that any form of activity – be that walking or short workouts at home – significantly increases people’s confidence in their physical health, and their intent to join a health club, gym or leisure centre.
Plus our latest consumer polling shows that sense of community, connection and friendship is also found in our nation’s gyms and leisure centres, across all generations.
Of course, it’s the first step that can be the hardest, followed by the consistency needed to turn those first efforts into regular, life-long habits.
Our industry has many great pathways so activity levels are slowly trending upwards, but activity is unequally distributed with many barriers still existing.
These barriers can be cost and convenience, but they exist in areas super served by facilities as well as those where they’re few and far between.
The biggest barrier is in the mind – it's the uncertainty about where to start, the fear of not fitting in and the gap between wanting to change and actually showing up. National Fitness Day exists to collapse that gap.
This year we're working with organisations across the sector, as well as schools, community groups, employers and others to make that first step easy, fun and frictionless.
Free taster sessions, beginner-friendly groups, times that fit real life – all ‘Powered by You’, our theme for this year.
Because that's what National Fitness Day is for – not for people who've already decided they're fit, but for the millions like my 16-year-younger self who have a reason to be active but are looking for a way to start.
If you've been thinking about it, this is the week! This is the perfect time to take that first step.
Studio You releases three new sessions for 2026, in partnership with Nike, to support girls' confidence and participation in PE.
Children and young people
Gender
This Girl Can
We've linked up with the Youth Sport Trust and Greenhouse Sports to launch Elevate, which aims to identify and develop 45 talented young people in sport, whatever their background.
Children and young people
Funding
Coaching children and young people often takes place on the move in parks, halls, pitches or sports halls.
Those involved know these sessions can happen after work, before school, during busy evenings or as part of already-packed weekends. But regardless of when or where, they often happen with very little time to stop, reflect and ask, “what part of this process could we adapt so it feels more child-first?”
The only certain thing is that coaches need practical, quick-to-access and trusted support.
The question Play Their Way often gets asked is: "how can child-first coaching reach coaches in ways that work in the real world?"
Now, thanks to our growing community, ideas are being shared between peers but we wanted to make this more accessible for all coaches. This is one of the reasons we developed the new Play Their Way app.
The app gives trainers a simple place to go when they need support, whether they need a quick idea before a session or afterwards, while reflecting on what went well and what they want to do differently next time.
In any case, the aim of the Play Their Way resources is to ensure that child-first coaching can be applied in a practical context, and the app is a step towards delivering this objective directly into the pockets of coaches.
Every coach needs support and at the centre of the app is Joy – our new AI coaching assistant.
Coaches can ask Joy questions about child-first coaching and get quick answers based exclusively on trusted Play Their Way and Children’s Coaching Collaborative partner content.
This ensures that when coaches get support from the app it is always rooted in the Play Their Way philosophy, rather than generic advice.
The app gives trainers a simple place to go when they need support, whether they need a quick idea before a session or afterwards, while reflecting on what went well and what they want to do differently next time.
The app is there for you whether you need ideas specific to a particular age group, an activity or the time you have for any given session. Just tap in a few details and Joy will share child-first ideas you can use straight away.
Joy can also answer different questions, such as:
Alongside Joy, the app brings together practical articles, coach stories, learning content and updates from across Play Their Way.
Coaches can also track their progress and unlock badges as they go with the new gamification element.
We think this is a great tool that will help coaches and will benefit kids too, so if you work with trainers we encourage you to take a look, download it and try it.
And if you think it could help the people you support, share it with them because in doing so you can help make child-first coaching more available without having to start from scratch.
A new ‘Coach in Your Pocket’ tool offers instant access to support and advice informed by child-first coaching principles.
Children and young people
Coaching
For many people sport is associated with teamwork, friendship and confidence, but for lots of young LGBT+ individuals the experience of sport can be far less positive.
When I think back to my own experiences of school PE lessons, I remember often being one of the last people chosen for team sports.
Whilst many young people enjoy sport from an early age, others can come away feeling excluded, judged or simply that sport is not for people 'like them'.
Research consistently shows that LGBT+ people participate in sport at lower rates than their non-LGBT+ peers and experiences of bullying, concerns about fitting in, fear of judgement and a lack of visible role models can all contribute to young people not engaging in physical activity.
This matters because sport and physical activity offer far more than physical health benefits – they provide opportunities to build friendships, develop confidence, improve mental wellbeing and create a sense of belonging.
At Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons' Trust, we believe that every young person deserves the opportunity to experience those benefits and that is why physical activity has become one of our key strategic priorities.
Rather than expecting young LGBT+ people to adapt to environments where they may not feel welcome, we co-create spaces specifically designed to help them feel safe, supported and encouraged to participate.
Throughout the year, our members take part in a wide variety of low-level activities, such as ice skating, bowling, walking or cycling, to encourage them to be more physically active.
But what makes these experiences truly successful is not simply the activity itself, but the environment in which they take place.
Young people are surrounded by their LGBT+ peers, who share their experiences and are also supported by trained staff and volunteers too.
This environment is key because they get to see LGBT+ adults acting as role models and participating alongside them and, most importantly, they feel free to focus on enjoying the activity rather than worrying about whether they belong.
Rather than expecting young LGBT+ people to adapt to environments where they may not feel welcome, we co-create spaces specifically designed to help them feel safe, supported and encouraged to participate.
Mosaic Summer Camp can be a prime example of where it is taken to another level.
Each year, young LGBT+ individuals aged 12-17 spend a week together taking part in outdoor adventure activities, team challenges and sports that many have never had the confidence to try before.
Whether it is kayaking across a lake, abseiling off a cliff or building a raft, young individuals are encouraged to step outside their comfort zones in an environment built on acceptance and encouragement.
The results can be transformative and young people who arrive feeling anxious often leave having discovered new strengths, new friendships and a newfound confidence in their ability to participate in physical activity.
What’s more, for many our summer camp becomes the first place where they experience sport without fear of judgment.
For our young adults, those aged 18–25, Pride Youth Games provides a similar opportunity.
The event brings together LGBT+ youth organisations from across the UK to take part in friendly sporting activities to have fun and to build community connections.
The emphasis is not on elite performance but on participation, on enjoyment and on the creation of positive experiences that’ll encourage lifelong engagement with physical activity.
These programmes demonstrate an important lesson for the wider sports sector: when young LGBT+ individuals are provided with welcoming, inclusive and supportive environments, participation follows.
The challenge is not fixing a lack of interest in sport, but ensuring that young people can access sport in spaces where they feel they belong and where they don’t have to worry about being LGBT+.
At Mosaic, we have seen firsthand how transformative those opportunities can be.
Sport has the power to improve health, strengthen communities and build confidence, so by creating environments where young LGBT+ individuals feel safe to participate, we can ensure that more young people experience those benefits and discover that sport really can be for them.
As we work alongside partners in Uniting the Movement, we have been deeply inspired by the brilliant youth voice initiatives across the sector that are supporting young people to make themselves heard.
At the Leadership Skills Foundation, our own youth-voice journey is about reinforcing a core belief: that every young person can lead change if given the opportunity to develop their skills and confidence.
As part of our role as a Sport England system partner, we’ve been building understanding of the barriers young people face to accessing leadership opportunities and progressing into the sector's workforce.
Youth voice has been an important part of this process and we’ve been testing a new accredited learning programme to empower young people to lead the conversation.
The Speak Up Challenge aims to build young people’s skills and confidence through creative, participatory activities in classrooms, sports halls and youth clubs.
Based on the Lundy model for youth participation, it gives young people a platform to communicate their views to influential professionals and policy-makers – all while also receiving feedback to help them understand the potential impact of their insights.
As part of our pilot, colleagues at Sport England kindly agreed to listen and to provide video feedback as young people shared their perspectives on the barriers into sports volunteering and worked together to reimagine pathways into employment.
Their ideas spanned transport difficulties, prohibitive costs, lack of role models, low confidence and negative perceptions of careers in sport.
We’ve taken all the insights and created a summary for everybody to access and this is available on the Challenge page too.
Our youth-voice journey is about reinforcing a core belief: that every young person can lead change if given the opportunity to develop their skills and confidence.
Inspired by Sport England’s Youth Voice Innovation Storybook, we began by running co-design and consultation sessions in a variety of community and academic settings.
The young people we worked with were both energised by the opportunity to lead change and motivated by the potential to earn accredited recognition for their participation, but they also shared their concerns:
These insights helped form our core design principles: prioritise confidence-building, avoid long-term commitments, foster peer collaboration, protect privacy and recognise skill development through accreditation.
We planned a small, iterative pilot to test and adapt as we learned during the first phase, and we were blown away by the depth of insights shared and the level of creativity displayed.
However, some less confident participants, particularly those from special educational needs and disability (SEND) and neurodivergent backgrounds, felt overly vulnerable and struggled to express their views.
Delivery staff reflected that participants needed more time to build trust and grow into the activities.
Our second iteration focused more on building this base of skills and team rapport.
By improving scaffolding for mixed abilities, we saw positive signs that the programme was becoming more accessible and inclusive.
Overall, our internal evaluation showed that 87% of participants believed the pilot helped them build skills to speak up for change, and the same percentage said they are now more confident speaking in front of others.
These results reinforced our belief that the ability to form a viewpoint and effectively share it is a leadership skill that can be practiced, improved and recognised.
This project has strengthened our understanding of young people’s lived experiences and is informing how we design and deliver programmes for underrepresented groups.
Participation has also had a meaningful impact on those involved.
It was a real joy to witness a room of boisterous 15-year-olds fall silent and react with smiles as they watched their views being addressed by colleagues from Sport England.
When we surveyed how they felt about the feedback, the overwhelming majority indicated they “definitely felt heard”.
They were proud that their insights were taken seriously and this validation has acted as a springboard into other opportunities.
Following the challenge, we’ve seen participants inspired to launch online petitions for their MPs, to create new youth-led school clubs and to seek out other youth advocacy initiatives.
As we move into the next phase of our development, we know we’ve still got some way to go, but we are excited to collaborate with other system partners to build on our learning and to support other related work from across the sector.
Together we can make sure that every young person – regardless of background or circumstance – is able to lead positive change, so if you’d like to discuss our findings or how we can work together to empower young leaders to speak up, please contact us.
We’re excited about continuing to grow together.
Growing up as the only deaf person in my family, sport became my escape from the loneliness and isolation I often felt at home and at school, because constantly second-guessing conversations and struggling to keep up takes a toll.
But sport gave me freedom and a way to let go of all that frustration.
It all started with swimming. In the water I found my own bubble of silence. No worrying about misheard words or asking people to repeat themselves – just me, the lane and a sense of independence.
That feeling is something every child should have, but for many deaf children the chance to experience it simply isn’t there.
Deafness is often called 'the forgotten disability' and it’s easy to see why.
According to data by the National Deaf Children’s Society there are more than 18 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, including 54,000 children, yet the challenges they face go far beyond communication.
Social isolation is common and that often leads to mental health struggles and inactivity.
The results of Sport England’s Active Lives Surveys painted a stark picture:
These numbers support why tackling inequalities isn’t just a nice idea – it’s essential – and it’s exactly what Sport England’s strategy is all about.
There are more than 18 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, including 54,000 children, yet the challenges they face go far beyond communication.
In 2025, we launched Destination Deaflympics, a programme for 8-16-year-olds inspired by the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics.
For us it’s all about giving young people the chance to try fun, inclusive activities and closing the gap between deaf children and their hearing peers.
So far we’ve reached 3,500 deaf and hard of hearing children across 175 settings and, along the way, we’ve learned a lot about the barriers they face, like the lack of accessible community provision or coaches who don't know how to deliver inclusive sessions.
That’s why we’re working with partners like the British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People to make sure deaf children get their recommended 60 minutes of activity every day.
This work has seen great success in the education sector with teachers sharing that by taking part in Destination Deaflympics, they are also seeing benefits in the classroom with students being more focused and ready to learn.
The Deaflympics celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2024 and the Tokyo Games was an event like no other.
The GB team brought home 12 medals, finishing 12th out of 80 nations, but its impact went way beyond the results.
These athletes are key role models who showed what’s possible and inspired the next generation of Deaf sport men and women.
Before the Games, one of our swimmers spent a day with deaf schoolchildren in Greater Manchester sparking excitement and ambition that will last a lifetime.
Everything we’re doing supports Sport England's long-term strategy, Uniting the Movement. We're talking about things like:
Sport should be for everyone and that’s why, by breaking down barriers and creating opportunities, we’re not just changing lives – we’re helping deliver Sport England’s vision of a fair, inclusive and active nation.
The Government has announced a £1 billion investment in PE and school sport to ensure equal access for every child and tackle childhood obesity.
Children and young people
Funding
Government
Tackling inactivity
Today is National Children’s Day UK – a moment to celebrate childhood, recognise children’s rights and promote the wellbeing of children and young people.
For me, it’s also an opportunity to reflect on the strong alignment between National Children’s Day UK and the work we do at Sport England.
We know that regular participation in sport and physical activity can have a profound impact on children and young people, supporting both physical health and mental wellbeing, and that it helps to build confidence, connection and belonging.
Our latest Active Lives Children and Young People survey shows that we continue to see a positive association between activity levels and mental wellbeing.
Scores in this area are higher for those who are active as when answering the question ‘How happy did you feel yesterday?' out of 10, young people aged between seven and 16 who were ‘Active’ scored 7.1, while those who were ‘Fairly active’ scored 6.9 and those ‘Less active’ scored 6.7.
Sport England is a partner within the Children’s Coaching Collaborative (CCC), an alliance focused on championing children’s rights in sport and physical activity – particularly the rights to be heard, to play and to develop.
Listening to young people and acting on what they tell us is central to creating experiences that are positive, inclusive and shaped around their needs.
The CCC's Youth Advisory Group (YAG) is made up of 14 young people aged 13–19, with a range of lived experiences.
Their role is to ensure their peers are meaningfully involved in decision-making and influencing coaching practice to be fairer, more inclusive and genuinely youth‑led.
During the Easter break, I had the privilege of joining 10 members of the YAG for two days in Manchester for an event that was expertly coordinated by StreetGames.
Despite early starts and long journeys, the group brought energy, honesty and passion to each session.
Their role as advisors truly came to life as they shared their experiences of being coached. Some were also able to reflect from another perspective – as young people who, themselves, coach others.
Across the two days we created space for the young people to reflect on their activity journeys – looking back to their younger years and thinking about how their experiences had shaped the way they feel about sport and physical activity today.
Listening to young people and acting on what they tell us is central to creating experiences that are positive, inclusive and shaped around their needs.
Through individual and group activities they shared moments of positive experiences, as well as times when sport had felt uncomfortable, pressurised or exclusionary.
These reflections helped surface what really matters to young people when it comes to coaches, environments and feeling safe, valued and included.
This blog is built directly on their voices and lived experiences.
From a young person’s perspective, coaches play a powerful role in shaping how sport and physical activity feels – for better or worse.
Young people told us they want coaches who:
The coaches who have the most positive impact are those who build respectful, trusting relationships, set clear boundaries and actively listen to feedback from children and young people.
When coaches encourage young people to try new things and gently push them outside their comfort zones, sport and physical activity can help to build confidence and self‑esteem, especially when challenge is balanced with praise.
Young people also shared how good it feels to:
However, they were equally clear about what can take the joy out of sport.
When coaches place too much pressure on performance, it can quickly undermine confidence and motivation.
High‑pressure environments affect young people differently and, for some, this can lead to stress, disengagement or dropping out altogether.
The feeling of being left out or forgotten can be especially damaging – for example, being the only girl in a mixed session.
Many young people already worry about being judged or excluded; what they want most is to feel that they belong, can socialise and feel accepted.
Ultimately, young people told us they want low‑pressure, welcoming and non‑judgmental environments where they feel supported, encouraged and free to learn.
We heard clearly from the YAG that they want coaches who believe in them, understand that fun and enjoyment matter, and recognise that positive experiences are key to developing a lifelong love of physical activity.
The YAG will continue to shape support for the sector, helping to ensure more children and young people can access opportunities that reflect their needs and experiences.
Coaches play a hugely influential role in children and young people’s lives.
If you’re a coach, or work with those who coach children, you can get involved by joining the Play Their Way community bringing together people who are committed to child‑first, inclusive coaching and creating positive experiences for every child.
And if you have some time, the CCC is launching a series of peer-learning webinars, which I can't recommend enough. They are free to access and are open to anyone working in the sports and coaching sector who is motivated to make changes to embed youth voice in their organisation.
The first session will take place on 30 June, and it will be presented by the head of youth leadership at Youth Sport Trust, Steph Matthews, who will share practical insights, learnings and successes from embedding youth voice across their organisation.
Long before I worked in sport, or even imagined running a sports charity, I was a state-school kid in Windsor learning how to row and trying to help keep our school boat club afloat.
My first experience of The Boat Race wasn’t from a fan park or a television screen but from the riverbank, where I was selling programmes to passers-by to help raise funds for the club.
That day, and what I felt during that time, stuck with me.
The excitement of the day and its sense of history is huge, plus the Youth Boat Race aimed to bridge the gap between the on-water action and the young people watching from the bankside.
That memory was very much in my mind when in 2024 we began pitching the idea of a Youth Boat Race to the event organisers.
After nearly 200 years of The Boat Race – one of the longest-running sporting events in the world, which this year will take place on Saturday 4 April – it felt there was an untapped opportunity for local young people, particularly those from state schools, to be part of it.
The ambition behind the Youth Boat Race was to change that, because this event was never just about racing. It was about access.
Access to rowing for young people who might not otherwise find it; access to the River Thames and its history and access to the feeling of belonging to an iconic and nationally televised major sporting event.
Inspired by The Boat Race and funded by The Oxford & Cambridge Rowing Foundation (OCRF), the charity that owns The Boat Race Company, the Youth Boat Race was designed to celebrate participation, teamwork and opportunity.
Crews would be mixed and inclusive, ensuring that everyone who wanted to race could do so, regardless of background or experience level and, just as importantly, the event was built with young people, not just for them.
The excitement of the day and its sense of history is huge, plus the Youth Boat Race aimed to bridge the gap between the on-water action and the young people watching from the bankside.
From school talks and volunteering opportunities to co-designing the event’s branding, the build-up and their input to shaping the event mattered, as those moments helped young rowers feel ownership, pride and a real connection to The Boat Race week itself.
By April 2025, standing on the sunny banks of the Thames at Fulham Reach Boat Club, it was clear the idea had taken on a life of its own and the event featured on the BBC with a peak audience of 2.8 million. We even made our own video on the events of the day, which we are very proud of.
Over 100 state-school students and volunteers gathered for the second Youth Boat Race.
Eight mixed crews from schools across London raced side by side on the same stretch of river used by the Oxford and Cambridge University rowers, with families lining the banks and local supporters cheering.
The atmosphere was joyful, loud and deeply proud, with participants describing it as an amazing experience filled with music and laughter that they would “100% like to do again”, and "a very fun and a unique experience" that people thoroughly enjoyed and that built new memories with friends.
Watching young athletes race along the Championship Course was genuinely moving.
Many of them had discovered rowing through state school and community programmes, and that gave me an added sense of pride.
Speeches from OCRF Trustee Erin Kennedy OBE and Mayor Patricia Quigley captured exactly what the day represented: teamwork, trust, confidence and being part of something bigger than ourselves.
But for me, what has been most exciting is witnessing just how quickly the Youth Boat Race has grown.
From a small pilot in 2024, to a significantly expanded second year, all supported by the generosity of OCRF, the event has already become a meaningful fixture of Boat Race week. And now to see it included in Channel 4’s coverage this Easter Weekend 2026 truly feels like a milestone.
That visibility matters as it sends a powerful message to young people watching at home that rowing is something they can be part of.
After the inaugural Youth Boat Race in 2024, Owen Slot, chief sports writer at The Times, summed this up perfectly when he said: “Only when sports can spread the word like this does elite funding at the Olympic end really make sense.”
For me, that captures the essence of the Youth Boat Race and is the link between grassroots opportunity and elite sport, showing how inspiration, access and participation can exist hand-in-hand with elite level racing.
The Youth Boat Race is still young, but its purpose is clear and each year it grows, not just in numbers, but in confidence, quality and impact too.
What began as an idea is now an event that brings communities together and opens doors for young people across London.
It proves that success isn’t measured by winning, but by the friendships formed, the confidence built and the moment a young person realises they belong on the river.
And this Easter, with the Youth Boat Race shared with a national audience, many more young people might just see themselves there too.
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