New organisation aims to encourage children to lead more active lives

Capre aims to ensure that professionals delivering games, sports, or any other kind of physical activity to children are qualified to deliver instruction and create positive sport experiences for young people by signing them up to its register. 

Greg Small, Capre’s head of membership, said, ‘We have to look at what is happening at school level and at an early years level in order to turn back this tide of inactivity. What we learn in the early years we do carry through into later life, and if you are not taught the foundation of a healthy lifestyle you can’t be expected to follow that on into adulthood.’

He added, 'At Capre we promote the foundations and skills for an active life by offering public advice and acting as a signpost towards qualified instructors, who understand how to engage with children and how to make physical activity fun and innovative, which will set the groundwork for children to follow that through into later life.’

A children’s activity professional is defined by Capre as someone who delivers physical activity for children and young people in the area of multi-disciplinary games and sports, and all kinds of physical activity. This can occur in many settings including breakfast, lunch and after-school clubs, camps, and birthday parties.

While Capre does not target coaches who work in sport-specific coaching or physical educators delivering the curriculum in school teaching hours, all those working in the children’s activity industry, who deliver children’s physical activity or who work in a multi-sport environment, as well as any members of Compass trade association for sports providers, can join the register.

Capre aims to:

• provide verification that individuals working in the children’s activity sector are fully qualified to perform their role;
• support the career progression and the training needs of those working in the sector;
• provide assurance and confidence to parents, employers and schools that those working in the industry meet rigorous standards of excellence;
• drive further professionalisation of the employees working in the children’s activity sector.

Ian Taylor, CEO of SkillsActive, said, ‘Skilled professionals can recognise a child's enthusiasm for sports and physical activities, and help them channel that passion into a legacy of self-belief and self-confidence for a lifetime. That's why SkillsActive has created Capre, a new independent register of children's activity professionals. This will ensure children and young people are instructed by qualified, professional staff.

‘Inspiring not only future Olympic sporting champions, but an active, healthy population will take concerted, ongoing investment and people development in the sports and physical activity sector. Only by doing so can we ensure the Olympics legacy continues to be realised.’

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY REPORT

A report released earlier this month by the All-Party Commission on Physical Activity, ‘Tackling Physical Inactivity: A Coordinated Approach’, suggested that the UK is currently facing ‘an epidemic of physical inactivity’, with a lack of exercise causing 37,000 premature deaths every year, more than from murder, suicide and accidents combined.

Co-authored by crossbench peer Tanni Grey-Thompson, Charlotte Leslie MP, Julian Huppert MP and Barbara Keeley MP, the report is the first of two to be published by the commission, which was set up in October 2013.

Mr Small commented, ‘The figures in the report are very, very concerning. Something has severely slipped through the gaps in terms of understanding the benefits of a healthy lifestyle for children and young people.'

www.capregister.org