Game On: Why this report could be a turning point for healthier, happier communities.

The publication of Game On: Community and school sport feels like more than another committee report. It feels like a moment of recognition.

Published by the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee on the 20th of April 2026, the report sets out in clear terms what so many across sport, leisure, health and community development have known for years: the case for investing in sport and physical activity is no longer in doubt. The evidence is there. The need is there. The opportunity is there. What has been missing is the coordination, urgency and long-term commitment to act.

For the Why Sports community, that matters.

This report does not treat sport as a nice-to-have. It places community and school sport where it belongs: at the centre of healthier lives, stronger places and better futures. It speaks not only about participation, pitches and PE, but also about mental well-being, productivity, social cohesion, prevention, volunteering and inequality. That shift in language is important because it reflects the reality many organisations are already working within. Sport is not operating in isolation. It is helping to carry the weight of challenges that sit across health, education, local government, regeneration and community life.

The committee is also refreshingly honest about the barriers holding the sector back. It highlights unstable and insufficient funding, ageing facilities, uneven local provision, pressures on schools, and a lack of national coordination. It points directly to the burden on volunteers and the way underinvestment hits disadvantaged communities hardest. None of this will surprise those delivering work on the ground. In truth, much of the sector has been achieving remarkable outcomes despite the system around it, not because of it.

Its central message is not simply that sport needs more support. It is that physical activity should be treated as a cross-government priority. The committee recommends a new national “Movement for Health” strategy, to be published by 31 December 2026, bringing together health, education, planning, transport, local government and community policy around one shared objective: getting the nation more active. That is a major step in the right direction because it reframes the conversation. It moves us away from seeing sport as a departmental issue and towards understanding movement as a national outcome.

If the government presses forward with that approach, the implications for the sector could be significant.

First, it could create the clarity the sector has needed for years. Too often, brilliant organisations are left to navigate fragmented funding streams, short-term priorities and policy silos. A joined-up strategy would not solve every issue overnight, but it would give local authorities, schools, operators, clubs, charities and delivery partners a clearer framework to align around. That matters because progress is often slowed not by a lack of ambition but by a lack of connection between people working towards the same end.

Second, it could strengthen the case for investment. The report states that the UK spends around 0.3% of total public expenditure on sport and recreation, compared with a European average of around 0.8%, and recommends increasing that UK share to 0.6% over the next ten years. It also highlights Sport England evidence that every £1 invested in community sport and physical activity generates £4.21 in social and economic value. This is exactly the kind of argument the sector needs to keep making: investment in physical activity is not a cost pressure, it is a preventative asset. It has the potential to reduce pressure on health and welfare budgets while strengthening local economies and community resilience.

Third, it could unlock a broader coalition of support. One of the most encouraging aspects of the report is its recognition that future progress cannot rely on public funding alone. It calls for the government to play a stronger role in attracting private and institutional investment, aligning corporate social responsibility with community sport outcomes, and encouraging collaboration between public, charitable and private funders. That opens the door to fresh partnerships and more imaginative models of delivery. For a sector that is often forced into survival mode, that kind of strategic backing could help shift thinking from short-term rescue to long-term growth.

The opportunities are not only financial. They are cultural too.

The report’s recommendations on schools, inclusive PE and public space point to a wider ambition: creating environments where being active feels normal, welcoming and accessible. It argues for broader and more inclusive PE, support for girls and children with SEND, better local facilities, and more usable community spaces. It also recognises the need to support volunteers better, including through a national volunteering policy and streamlined administration. In other words, the future opportunity is not simply to protect the current system, but to redesign it so that more people see movement as part of everyday life.

For the wider sector, this is the challenge now.

The report gives us something valuable: permission to think bigger. It validates what many have argued for a long time, that healthier and happier communities will not be built through healthcare alone, or education alone, or leisure alone.

They will be built when those systems work together, with sport and physical activity recognised as a driver of national wellbeing rather than a peripheral extra.

But reports do not change communities on their own. People do. So the response from the sector matters just as much as the response from the government. This is the moment for organisations to share what is already working, to speak honestly about what is broken, and to push for a future that is more joined-up, more inclusive and more ambitious. The evidence is strong. The need is urgent. The public health challenge is real. Yet so is the opportunity.

If the government now follows through, this report could become the foundation for something genuinely transformative. Not just a better sports policy.

But a better national approach to healthier lives.

And if that happens, the winners will not only be sports clubs, schools or leisure providers. They will be the communities, families and young people who finally benefit from a system designed to help them move more, feel better and live healthier, happier lives. Win win!

Read the report -

Game On: Community and school sport.