Meeting of the Parliament 11 December 2025
I thank Daniel Johnson for finishing my speech for me. [Laughter.] I was going to say that I witnessed young people flourishing and developing in a training environment that delivered structure and self-discipline in their lives. It was great to see, and one of them even ended up doing a college course on health and fitness.
More telling is what happened to those athletes during Covid, when they were starved of that structure in their lives. Without that framework and focus, there was a significant slide, which was much worse than that for the other athletes in the squad. One ended up not being able to control his eating and being unable to get out of the house to take part in activities. He ended up putting on so much weight that he never got back to training—and he was an international athlete.
Having access to activity, a pathway to self-expression and a route to channel their energy can be so important for some people who have neurodevelopmental conditions, because it can help to provide balance.
I spoke to the Royal Society of Psychiatrists and some autism representatives in the third sector to see whether there was any agreement on the points that I am exploring. Thankfully, there was agreement.
I take every opportunity to highlight the importance of sport and activity to the nation’s wellbeing. I suggest that, in these instances, they can be even more important. I also suggest that the continued decline in opportunities to be active in the school environment and in our communities might be a contributing factor to the exponential and unprecedented rise in the number of people who are requesting ADHD assessments. I consider those numbers to have always been there, under the surface. However, I wonder whether, as part of prevention and, as Daniel Johnson put it, the non-medicalisation of the condition, many people with neurodivergent conditions would benefit from a reversal of the decline in opportunities to channel their hyperactivity.
Again, I thank Daniel Johnson for bringing the debate to the Parliament.
13:21