Start Active

Our priorities are to:

Increase active travel to schools

Increase participation in physical activity among the following underrepresented groups:

Children and young people with disabilities and special educational needs

Children and young people from low-income families

Girls

Support children and young people with mental health conditions

Start Active: Supporting children and young people into physical activity from an early age

We want all children and young people in Norfolk to have positive experiences of physical activity from an early age. In doing so, we hope to support them to flourish, and instil healthy habits to last a lifetime.

We will focus our efforts on children and young people who experience inequalities or barriers to participation.

We have various projects through which we are combating inequalities and removing barriers for children and young people. The work we do is crucial to giving children the best chance at a healthy and active start in life.

Our current work with partners, including our work on Safer Sport, Big Norfolk Holiday Fun and Family Hire Hubs can be found in our strategy.

Everything we do is supported by various reports and statistics that show the importance of a healthy lifestyle from an early age. It is recommended that children and young people take part in 60minutes of activity a day, through a combination of active travel, physical education and play. This has been linked to higher levels of attainment, success in school and wellbeing.

In Norfolk:

Why is this so important?

30,132

children and young people have SEND requirements.

4 in 10

young people report lower levels of wellbeing.

20%

live in households below average income level.

30.3%

of children do less than 30 minutes of activity each day.

1 in 6

pupils did no physical activity outside of school in 4 weeks.

(Norfolk SEND Survey, 2025) (FLOURISH Survey 2024) (Norfolk JNSA, 2025) (CYP Active Lives Survey, 2024) (FLOURISH Survey, 2024) See more insights and data

Connect

Build long-term relationships with schools, clubs, providers, Local Authority partners and VCSE organisations to create physical activity opportunities for children and young people.

How will we do it?

Find out more

Enable

Work with schools and partners to embed physical activity beyond the PE curriculum; providing staff with skills and resources to enable schools to be more active.

Advocate

Champion the use of the Youth Voice programme and co-produce reliable solutions with children and young people across all of our projects and programmes.

Our work

Click on any of the links to find out more about our areas of work with children and young people. Alternatively, if you’re looking to get in touch, visit our contact page and send us a message directly.

Start Active

Our work

Creating Active Schools

Children’s Active Lives Survey

Norfolk School Games

Active Travel Schools

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