An Equal Play update on International Day of Disabled People

Paris 2024

By David Clarke, ParalympicsGB Chief Executive

Days like the International Day of Disabled People can be a great opportunity to shout about disability and inclusion and to demonstrate the power of allyship across the world. But they only become an opportunity if they’re about more than just words: There needs to be action.

As the world tuned in to Paris 2024 we used our moment in the spotlight to launch the transformative social impact campaign Equal Play calling for equal access to PE and school sport for disabled children.

Many Paralympians told us their own experiences of exclusion during PE lessons, sharing stories of inspiring teachers and lessons designed with inclusion at the heart. But many athletes talked about a childhood spent sat on the sidelines, watching their counterparts enjoy PE in a way that they could not. That needs to change.

Only one in four disabled children in the UK say they take part regularly in sport at school. The scale of the problem is huge, with 1.5 million disabled children comprising 15% of the school population. Disabled children are being sidelined as pressures mount on teachers to deliver inclusive PE without the training, funding and confidence to do so, meaning kids are going without sport and play - fundamentals of their happiness, confidence, physical and mental health.

The documentary

On the eve of the Games a powerful ParalympicsGB documentary Equal Play aired on Channel 4 telling the stories of Marley and Tammy, two children whose lives have been profoundly affected by their access to school sport. Marley, a teenager from London, found his confidence through boxing, while Tammy, inspired by ParalympicsGB star Hannah Cockroft, overcame barriers to physical activity at her school and discovered wheelchair racing.

Through their stories, _Equal Play _highlights the transformative power of sport and the persistent challenges disabled children face in accessing it. The documentary has won several awards and struck a chord with audiences, amplifying the call for inclusive sport in schools.

Watch Equal Play on YouTube

Campaign launch, Paris

The Equal Play campaign launched at a ParalympicsGB reception during Paris 2024, which saw Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, stating her passionate support for the campaign after watching the film with Tammy and Marley and their families.

Nandy said: “I am in awe at that film… I don’t know if I’ve ever been more moved than by the stories of Tammy and Marley and your incredible families.”

“I’m shocked and appalled to learn from Equal Play that only one in four disabled young people can access sport at school. We are determined as a government that is going to change.”

Athletes from the ParalympicsGB team began making the Equal Play sign with their arms on the start line and finish line as media interest grew, using their platform to show support for the children being left behind.

The ParalympicsGB team make the Equal Play sign in the Paris Paralympic Village

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister

On a wave of national support on homecoming day the team sent an Open Letter to the Prime Minister calling for change through four solutions: empowering teachers with the right tools and resources, adapting teacher training, redefining how PE is seen within the school curriculum and increasing the number of disabled people entering the teaching profession.

Dialogue with Government continues and while the initial response has been overwhelmingly positive with the Prime Minister stating in Paris “This Government is determined to ensure that all young people — whatever their background — have equal access to sports”, there is work to be done to ensure that by LA 2028 no disabled child is left on the sidelines in the proud birthplace of the Paralympic Games.

What’s next

We are aware extensive work has already been undertaken around inclusion in schools, such as Inclusion 2024, which has significantly helped disabled young people over the last four years. Since it started, Inclusion 24 has reached 20% of schools and we are pushing the government to ensure there is continuation in this work beyond the department’s current commitment to end of March 2025 to reach all schools and other educators.

Three in four disabled children are still not able to experience PE and school sport in the same way as their non-disabled counterparts, and more needs to be done to combat this. The Prime Minister, in an interview with Channel 4 from ParalympicsGB’s Preparation camp in Paris, called this statistic simply “unacceptable”, Lisa Nandy, echoed this sentiment, telling the Last Leg audience that it’s “certainly something our government is going to do something about”.  

We have spent the last year designing Equal Play to provide government with a set of twenty-four policy solutions across four different priority areas: teacher training, teacher development, curriculum prioritisation and workforce. Each of these are low cost and have been developed from consultation with disabled people and with the support of the education sector.

They have also been independently verified by Ceva Global, who concluded “the significant impact that will be achieved [by implementing Equal Play] is worthy of the investment of time, funds and other resources”. With a holistic approach from government working across sport, health and education, Equal Play will make sure no disabled child is left on the sidelines. 

But the issues highlighted in Equal Play run far deeper than the curriculum. The Culture secretary recognised the challenges on the teaching profession and the need to “work with them to turn that around” promising, to do more training, provide more support, and help to change that culture both inside and outside of school”.

Lisa Nandy speaking from a podium at the launch of Equal Play in Paris

Here at ParalympicsGB we see educators as enablers in a child’s education, and we believe that providing better training and opportunities for teachers to learn about inclusion both during their training and over their careers via Continuing Professional Development is one of the most influential factors in improving a disabled young person’s experience in school.

We urge Government to consider the solutions set out in our policy paper and take a lead on empowering the school workforce with the right tools, understanding and resources to deliver truly inclusive physical education.  We are also concerned by the incredibly low numbers of disabled teachers and the potential to untap a new demographic of educators by investigating and removing the barriers that stop disabled people entering the teaching profession.

We have spoken at length with the Minister for Disabled People and are keen to address this as part of the Get Britain working white paper released recently, and we urge the Department for Education to work with Department for Work and Pensions colleagues to make this a reality.

As a nation we must ensure that support for Equal Play, like the International Day of Disabled People, is not just about hopeful words, but about action.

David Clarke, ParalympicsGB

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