Why Physical Activity Must Break Out of Its Silo. #ItAllCounts

For too long, physical activity has been treated as though it belongs to one department, one budget line, one strategy, one profession, one sector.

It does not. It never has.

Physical activity is not simply about leisure centres, gyms, sport programmes or participation targets. It is about whether people live well. It is about whether communities feel safer, healthier, more connected and more hopeful. It is about whether we reduce pressure on public services or continue to pay more to manage preventable problems further downstream.

And yet, despite years of evidence, conversation and strategy, too much of the system still operates through a programme-centric lens. Too many organisations are still working in silos. Too many departments still see physical activity as someone else’s job. Too many good people are forced to fight for limited funding while the wider system spends more and more money responding to the consequences of inactivity, poor health, loneliness, inequality and disconnection.

The case for increased physical activity is already there for all to see. The UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines are clear that physical activity improves physical and mental health and helps prevent and manage a wide range of long-term conditions. Government guidance has gone even further, stating: “If physical activity were a drug, we would refer to it as a miracle cure, due to the great many illnesses it can prevent and help treat.”

And the benefits do not stop at health. Government guidance highlights that regular physical activity supports social inclusion and brings wider social, environmental and economic benefits, including improved learning and attainment, better social interaction, reduced air pollution and increased productivity in the workplace. NHS England also says the benefits are substantial for prevention, treatment and management of conditions linked to economic inactivity, including mental health, musculoskeletal health and multiple long-term conditions.

So let us ask the question plainly.

If physical activity can improve outcomes for social care, community safety, mental health, obesity, loneliness, education, active travel, public health, non-communicable disease, regeneration, economic prosperity and wider community wellbeing, why are we still planning and funding as though these issues sit in separate boxes?

Why are we still talking in the language of isolated programmes when the challenge in front of us is clearly systemic?

The evidence is strong. The response is still fragmented.

There is progress, and that matters. Sport England’s latest Active Lives Adult Survey showed that 63.7% of adults in England were meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ recommended activity levels between November 2023 and November 2024 — the highest level on record, equivalent to 30 million adults. Since the survey began, nearly 2.4 million more adults are regularly active.

That should be celebrated.

However, Sport England’s Inequalities Metric also shows how uneven progress still is. Adults with no inequality characteristic are far more likely to meet activity guidelines than those facing multiple disadvantages: 75% versus 44%. Sport England estimates that if adults with one or more inequality characteristics were as active as those with none, there would be 4.9 million more active adults and more than £15 billion in additional social value each year from the adult population alone.

That is not a marginal issue. That is a system issue. It tells us something vital: inactivity is not just about motivation or individual choice. It is tied to poverty, place, health, opportunity, confidence, culture, access and whether the people shaping policy and investment are prepared to work across boundaries rather than defend them.

So why do silos still exist?

This is where the conversation has to become more honest. It is easy to blame individuals. It is harder to confront the design of the system itself. Many decision-makers are stretched. Many professionals are overworked. Capacity is thin. Budgets are under pressure. Leadership changes interrupt momentum. Staff turnover weakens relationships. Funding structures still encourage short-term delivery over long-term collaboration.

Even Sport England has acknowledged that collaborative working is often hindered by financial constraints, recruitment challenges and cultural barriers, and that political and leadership changes can force relationships to be rebuilt again and again.

There is also an education gap. Not because people are unintelligent. Not because they do not care. But because many still have not been supported to fully understand physical activity as a strategic tool, rather than a service add-on.

That gap shows up in healthcare. Government guidance cites a survey of GPs in England, finding that 80% were unfamiliar with the national physical activity guidelines, fewer than half felt confident raising physical activity with patients, and more than half had received no specific training on the issue.

If that kind of knowledge gap can exist in one of the most important parts of the public system, then we should not be surprised that similar gaps exist elsewhere across housing, regeneration, education, transport, community safety and wider local decision-making.

And then there is culture. Too often, organisations are still rewarded for protecting territory, proving ownership and delivering activity within narrow remits. Too rarely are they rewarded for joining up budgets, sharing credit, building trust and creating outcomes that cut across multiple policy goals.

We say we want prevention. We say we want healthier communities.

We say we want to tackle inequalities. We say we want smarter public spending.

But prevention requires collaboration. And collaboration requires humility, time, trust and leadership.

Physical activity is no longer just the concern of the leisure sector.

Over the last decade, the conversation has widened. The physical activity sector increasingly understands that movement is linked to mental health, women and girls’ participation, leadership, equality, social justice, health inequalities and the wider conditions that shape daily life. Sport England’s own long-term strategy states clearly that sport and physical activity have a major role to play in improving physical and mental health, supporting the economy, reconnecting communities and rebuilding a stronger society.

The World Health Organization makes the same point internationally. Its Global Action Plan on Physical Activity says a “social movement and paradigm shift” is needed to address inactivity and that promoting physical activity requires collaboration across sectors, including community organisations, governments, private companies and individuals.

That matters, because it underlines something that Why Sports has long believed:

It all counts.

Walking counts. Play counts. Community activity counts. Informal recreation counts. Active travel counts. Sport counts. Green space counts. Social connection counts. The small local intervention counts. The major strategic shift counts. The public conversation counts.

If the outcome is a happier, healthier, more connected nation, then it all counts.

The public must be part of this conversation too.

This cannot remain a conversation held only between professionals in conference halls, strategy meetings and policy documents.

Yes, departments must work together better. Yes, organisations must build stronger strategic relationships. Yes, professionals must find the space to listen, learn and speak more openly.

But the general public must also be engaged. Because real change will only happen when policy, delivery and public understanding move together. If physical activity is always framed as something technical or sector-owned, we lose people. If it is presented only as a target or a service, we miss the bigger truth. This is about daily life. It is about how people travel, gather, connect, recover, belong and feel part of something larger than themselves.

The public needs to hear a clearer message: physical activity is not only for sporty people, fit people or people already engaged in the sector. It is for everyone. It belongs in every community. It has a role to play at every stage of life. And it has a part to play in creating a society that is healthier, kinder and more united. The public also needs to help shape what comes next.

Parents know where opportunities are missing. Young people know when systems are failing to reach them. Disabled people know where the barriers still are. Communities know what makes them feel safe, welcome and included.

People who feel overlooked by the system often have the clearest view of what needs to change. If we are serious about progress, then the public cannot just be treated as an audience. They must be treated as partners.

Now is the time to come together.

Look out of the window. This is a nation under strain. Across the UK, too many people are struggling with poor health, low confidence, social isolation, economic pressure and a growing sense that systems are not working for them. At the same time, public services are under immense pressure, communities are being tested, and the country is searching for answers to problems that are deeply interconnected.

This is why physical activity matters more than ever. Not as a silver bullet. Not as a headline. Not as a fashionable add-on. But as one of the most practical, powerful and underused tools we have to improve lives and strengthen society.

This is no longer a side conversation. It should now be central to how we think about prevention, resilience, place, prosperity, belonging and the future health of the nation.

The question is not whether physical activity matters broadly enough. The question is whether we are brave enough to respond as though it does.

What needs to happen next?

We need departments to stop planning in isolation. We need organisations to stop protecting territory and start building strategic relationships. We need leaders to create space for honest, cross-sector conversations.

We need physical activity to be understood not as a standalone service, but as a strategic tool that helps other systems succeed. We need inclusive thinking from the outset, especially for disabled people and communities too often excluded from decision-making. We need stronger public engagement, so people feel part of the movement rather than spoken at by it. We need the sector to speak more plainly about what is not working. And we need all of this with greater urgency.

Because if the country is serious about healthier lives, stronger communities and a more hopeful future, then collaboration around physical activity is not optional.

It is imperative.

At Why Sports, we believe this moment demands more honesty, more openness and more courage.

We need professionals to speak freely, organisations to connect more deeply, leaders to think wider and communities to be heard.

We need disabled people and underrepresented voices included from the start, the public to be engaged, empowered and part of the solution.

And we need every department, agency and organisation with a stake in healthier, happier communities to stop asking whether physical activity is relevant to their agenda — and start asking how quickly they can make it part of it.

Because the truth is simple. The need is urgent. The prize is enormous. And if we truly want to build a happier, healthier nation, then we must stop working around physical activity in fragments and start driving change together.

#ItAllCounts. Every conversation. Every voice. Every effort. Every community.

Now let’s act like it.