Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 35
Review school PE kit guidance to ensure widest choice for girls, including sports bras.
Recommendation
The evidence on girls’ anxieties around PE kit is overwhelming. We recommend the Department for Education and National Physical Activity Taskforce review guidance for schools on school PE kit, with the aim of ensuring all schools permit the widest possible choice for girls. That guidance should include advice to schools on use of sports bras by girls taking part in PE and school sports.
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation but provided a vague commitment, describing the general activities of the National Physical Activity Taskforce and the Board of Women's Sport, without outlining specific actions or timelines for reviewing PE kit guidance for schools to ensure wider choice for girls or advice on sports bras.
Paragraph Reference:
35
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government accepts this recommendation. The National Physical Activity Taskforce (NPAT) meets quarterly and has held three productive meetings since its launch in September 2023. The next NPAT meeting is scheduled for June 2024. To make the ambitions of the Government’s sport strategy Get Active a reality requires long term behavioural change and that is why we have set our targets to 2030. Health barriers for girls and women in sport: Government and Sport England responses 9 The NPAT uses the Sport England Active Live Survey, and the Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, to map trends, targets and trajectories for the taskforce. These two surveys provide extensive data and insights into activity levels and behaviours. The NPAT commissions short term-actions to members and sets milestones that can be measured to supplement our national level 2030 targets. The analysis sub group reports into the NPAT to track progress on the delivery of the goals and metrics set out in the Government’s sport strategy Get Active and provides joined up Government analysis. The Youth Sport Trust is a rotating member of the NPAT in their capacity as a member of the National Sector Partnerships Group (NSPG). The Youth Sport Trust has attended two NPAT meetings to date, Ministerial roundtable discussions, and also contributed to the analysis sub group, providing data and evidence on the barriers to participation for children and young people, to further inform the NPAT. Furthermore, the Review of Women’s Football, published in July 2023, highlighted the lack of active, formalised cross-sport sharing of best practices and innovation around issues that impact elite female athletes across the sports industry. The Review recommended that Government convene a Board of Women’s Sport to look at some of the prevalent issues facing women’s sport more broadly, and facing female athletes. The Board is focused primarily on elite and professional sports to ensure a clear distinction from the National Physical Activity Taskforce, which focuses on participation and activity rates. The Board of Women’s Sport met for the first time on 26 March 2024 and focused on the theme of physical health and welfare in line with the gaps in research highlighted by the Review. The Board brought together experts including The Well HQ, academics and National Governing Bodies to look at existing and future opportunities to support women’s sport. We will continue to engage with Board members over the coming months to look at some possible opportunities and solutions around physical welfare ahead of the Board meeting again in early summer 2024. Midlife and menopause