Afew years ago, I interviewed Magnus Scheving, aka LazyTown’s Sportacus, about kids’ fitness: how to motivate children to be active, how to make it fun, how to put all-encompassing programming together (see HCM March 07, p62). By that time, he’d already achieved outstanding results in his home country of Iceland, running initiatives in which every child in the country took part, leading to soaring sales of fruit and vegetables, plummeting sales of fizzy drinks, and 80 per cent of parents noticing a change in diet and motivation levels in their kids.

He was, when I spoke to him, turning his attention to the UK, and I admit I was genuinely optimistic about the prospects – there was something about his infectious energy and enthusiasm that made me feel, if anyone could get the UK’s kids moving, it would be him. Yet here we are, almost six years on, and even the indefatigable Scheving seems to have hit his head against a brick wall of British politics and ‘can’t do’ attitude.

So what’s going on in the UK – why can’t we get our kids moving? Is the problem political, cultural, environmental, financial – or indeed all of the above? Certainly the recent insolvency of MEND – which saw a sustained drop in the number of its evidence-based programmes due to the transfer of public health to local authorities – suggests that reducing childhood obesity is something people prefer to talk about, rather than do anything meaningful about or pay for.

So is the fitness industry taking the leading role it could – indeed, should – in addressing these issues? Doug Werner, fitness industry veteran and author of Abbie Gets Fit, thinks not: “The industry could benefit tremendously from being the authority in a new youth fitness movement, taking the lead on battling childhood obesity. To date however, I believe that, with few exceptions, the industry has missed the boat on this.”

So why aren’t we being more proactive in this area? And when we do implement programmes and initiatives, are we going about it in the right way? A recent review – published in the British Medical Journal in September 2012 – looked at outcomes data from 30 kids’ physical activity interventions published globally between January 1990 and March 2012. It found that the interventions almost never increased overall daily physical activity – the kids simply went back to their sedentary behaviour in between.

So if structured interventions aren’t working, do health clubs and leisure centres need to change their model? Should activity be less formalised, with indoor/outdoor spaces clearly dedicated to play and fun rather than exercise? Are more outreach programmes with schools needed? Are parent-child sessions the way forward?

Overall, is our strategy right regarding kids’ fitness? We ask the experts.