Effectively engaging school children in sport and physical activity is the only way to reach a broad spectrum of society in the future, according to Olympic bronze medal swimmer Steve Parry.

Talking at this morning’s A Strategy for Sport: A Change of Approach conference in Manchester, Parry said that under the terms of the government’s new sports strategy he would “focus energy and resources” on school children.

“This might not be politically correct, but if I’m going to have to pick where to focus energy and resources against the new strategy, every day of the week for me it’s going to be on our school children,” he told delegates.

“I think you’re going to get the sustainability [with children]. If you teach kids a habit it is going to stay with them – that isn’t necessarily true of adults,” added the BBC pundit. “If you want a broad spectrum of people engaged in sport I would suggest the best place to start is with our youngsters because they are much easier to engage.”

The broadcaster lauded the Sporting Future strategy for increasing Sport England’s remit to the participation of children over-5, compared to its previous requirement of 14+.

During his address, Parry reeled off some stark statistics which demonstrate the scale of the job needed to be done to engage young people in physical activity. According to the former athlete, 220,00 children left primary school last year unable to swim, while one in five children left primary school obese.

He also revealed that 75 per cent of children spend less time outside than prison inmates.

Parry added that there needed to be a “no compromise” attitude fostered to get people to participate in physical activity more, while a “ruthless and focused” approach needed to be developed to reach the right people in society.