Sport England has today committed £1.5 million of National Lottery funding to support The Daily Mile, the ground-breaking fitness initiative that aims to get children fit for life. In what is the biggest ever expansion of the programme since it originated in 2012, the investment will fund the recruitment of National and Local Coordinators to support and encourage more schools in England to sign-up.

Figures from Sport England's Active Lives Children and Young People survey released this month shows the scale of the challenge to help the nation's children be more active. It showed that, despite 3 million children doing an average of 60 or more minutes of physical activity a day, just over 2.3 million children and young people are 'less active' which means they do less than 30 minutes of physical activity a day.

Currently, The Daily Mile helps schoolchildren in over 3,500+ English schools reach their daily activity target. Sport England and The Daily Mile Foundation's partnership marks their shared vision to bring daily physical activity to all 20,000 primary schools in England.

Today, children from Ladypool Primary School in Birmingham will take part in a Daily Mile, alongside VIP guests and key stakeholders from The Daily Mile Foundation, Sport Birmingham and Sport England.

The founder of The Daily Mile, Elaine Wyllie; Director of The Daily Mile project at INEOS, John Mayock; Sport England's Executive Director Children of Young People and Tackling Inactivity, Mike Diaper; CEO of Sport Birmingham, Mike Chamberlain; and, Sport England CEO, Tim Hollingsworth will be joining Olympic Athlete and local Radio personality, Katharine Merry, at Ladypool to launch the partnership.

The event will celebrate the partnership and bring together local children to further spread this important message.

Founder of The Daily Mile, Elaine Wyllie said: "Since starting The Daily Mile six years ago, the progress we have made has been incredible. With Sport England's generous investment of National Lottery funding, The Daily Mile Foundation can continue to move closer towards our goal of every child in the UK being able to participate in The Daily Mile."

Sport England CEO, Tim Hollingsworth said: "Earlier this month, the landmark Active Lives Children's survey revealed that a third of children in England do less than 30 minutes of activity a day. It's the strongest evidence yet that not enough is being done to support our youngsters, and change is needed if we're to increase activity levels.

"Through getting schoolchildren to walk or run for 15 minutes every day, The Daily Mile has been proven to significantly improve fitness levels. As part of our support of all active mile initiatives, Sport England are delighted to be partnering with The Daily Mile Foundation and investing £1.5 million of National Lottery money into The Daily Mile. We want to take the initiative to even more primary schools across the county to improve the health of thousands more children."

Sport England's investment in The Daily Mile is a key part of its work to help children develop positive attitudes to exercise so they are more likely to continue the habit, and benefit as adults.

School Standards Minister, Nick Gibb said: "The Daily Mile is a hugely successful programme designed to ensure that every pupil in a primary school learns the habit of taking rigorous exercise every day.

"This very welcome funding from Sport England will enable more schools to sign-up for the programme. I believe every primary school in England should be introducing The Daily Mile into their school."

Minister for Sport and Civil Society, Mims Davies, added: "The Daily Mile is a great initiative that is fun and helps improve children's fitness and mental health.

"We know that an active child is a happier child and this investment will mean many more young people can take part, enjoy themselves and inspire them to stay active."

This event in Birmingham on the 17th December 2018 is the most recent in series of events to both raise awareness of the campaign and celebrate the 1.3 million children already running The Daily Mile.

ENDS.