‘Sport can be life-changing’: APPG relaunches with renewed commitment to health, wellbeing and equality

The inaugural AGM and first meeting of the new APPG on Sport and Physical Activity in the Criminal Justice System has taken place at the House of Lords, with a firm focus on how interventions can support health and wellbeing more effectively at scale and help to reduce the burden on the public purse.

The APPG (All Party-Parliamentary Group) is the central and constructive cross-party voice in Parliament that promotes sport-based interventions and physical activity as effective tools for the diversion and prevention of crime and the rehabilitation of people involved with the Criminal Justice System.

First launched in 2021, the Alliance of Sport (AoS) acts as secretariat for the APPG which has been reconvened following last year’s General Election. AoS chief executive James Mapstone commented: “We are really pleased to see the APPG reformed with such a supportive group of officers and members. It has a clear direction, and we are excited to be continuing our work in championing the voice of the network.”

The first meeting of 2025 featured keynote contributions from Kate Davies CBE, Director of Health and Justice, Armed Forces and Sexual Assault Services Commissioning at NHS England, and Matt Grey, Executive Director for Rehabilitation at HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

PRIORITIES

The meeting was chaired by Clive Efford MP and Baroness Sater, and attendees discussed the opportunities for physical activity and sport to contribute to the Criminal Justice System, and the APPG’s priorities for the year ahead.  

In particular, Kate outlined how NHS services in this field will increasingly prioritise health and wellbeing, as laid out in the Alliance of Sport’s ‘Get Well Stay Well’ Charter. Children, young people and adults who are in, or at risk of entering, both the Welfare System and the Criminal Justice System suffer disproportionately from poor physical and mental health, and Kate reiterated the ambition “to do more on the prevention side” through sport, physical activity and movement, and increase this “positive use of time” for people within the System.

“It needs to be more equitable, so it’s not just about pumping iron in the gym,” she said, providing the example of how yoga was helping to engage more women and girls.

Kate also cited chronic or long-term health conditions, and supporting recovery from substance misuse, as key focus areas. “How do we drive recovery through the Get Well Stay Well Charter? The Charter is the invention of men and women who are part of the System, and who have told us ‘this makes sense’.”

Andrew Nichols-Clarke, Senior Development Lead for Health and Justice Children Programme for NHS England, said sport was playing a vital role in helping to ‘stabilise’ young people who are potentially facing chaotic lives. “Where we are seeing change in the children’s estate, and actually in the community, is how we are starting to drive change with voluntary sector organisations and providing support to those young people. They may have multiple needs… but actually they may not be ready and stabilised enough yet to deal with the mental health intervention that is needed later down the line.

“If we can support them with that positive activity, but also that respected individual from a sporting organisation, then we see some real change.”

He gave an example of a young person working with an NHS England team in Coventry and Warwickshire, whose situation has been stabilised through sport-based opportunities, including becoming a mascot for his favourite football team. “Sport led him there, because that was his passion. He got engaged with the sport and then the organisations surrounding it.”

INTEGRATED

Andrew appealed for more organisations to support the Alliance of Sport’s collaborative and person-centred approach between sectors, organisations and multi-agency professionals. “That integrated approach has to happen, we can’t do it on our own,” he said.

Kate highlighted the work of HMPPS staff in providing some “amazing examples” of physical activity and sport-based interventions across the country, often in “difficult environments”. Matt revealed that 600-plus PE instructors employed by HMPPS currently are responsible for delivering more than 11 million hours of physical activity per annum.

“We very much see our role as working in partnership and trying to minimise the pressure on healthcare,” he said, adding that the focus is now largely on inactive people within prisons and how they can be motivated to become active “so we can support their future primary healthcare needs”.

“What are the smaller things we can do which are potentially life-changing?” he asked, citing academic evidence which suggests that the physical age of people in prisons is 10 years older than their biological age; while for women, the menopause and perimenopause starts 10 years earlier than in the general population.

He added: “What we need to think about is how we motivate people to change… the need is something which is really quite critical.”

A key focus for the APPG, according to Matt, should be on how partners can continue to build the evidence base which demonstrates the value of sport-based interventions to health and wellbeing in a custodial setting. This would enable HMPPS “to make changes in this space and see the benefits for people while they are in prison… and therefore reduce costs for us and the NHS”.

Kate asked meeting attendees, who included representatives from Sport England and the Youth Justice Board, to consider “our ambition for people coming in and out of the Criminal Justice System”. In particular, she highlighted how many opportunities these processes present “to look at people’s health and wellbeing”.

 “We had a young woman who was quite a prolific offender, going in and out of women’s prisons. She was quite obese, as part of her BMI, and she was also a victim of rape and sexual assault for most of her life. She had very low regard for herself and her wellbeing. But she got the opportunity to talk to someone about her body, and the physical activity that she needed to do within moderation.”

LIFE-CHANGING

Kate revealed: “She presented in a community forum with a sports body a few months after being released, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house – it was absolutely life-changing.

“The biggest barrier is not just focusing on someone who is in an establishment or coming through police custody because of justice issues or behaviour… it’s about turning this into an opportunity.”

Future meetings are likely to include evidence and insights from the APPG’s inquiry into physical activity in the youth secure and adult custodial estates in England and Wales. This inquiry, originally launched last year, was curtailed by the General Election and is now being relaunched.

Find out more about the APPG here. To receive updates on its progress and future meetings, please contact info@allianceofsport.org