It was with a certain amount of sadness but not surprise that I read a report in the British Medical Journal online last week that stated that seven-year-old children are not doing enough exercise.

The new research found that half of all seven-year-olds do not get enough exercise - and girls are far less active than boys. It also highlighted that only 51 per cent of all seven-year-olds in the UK achieve the recommended hour of exercise every day, with the figure being just 38 per cent in girls compared with 63 per cent in boys.

We see a lot written in the media about how as a nation we are not supporting children at an early enough age to understand and enjoy the benefits of PE and sport. You often hear of the problem, but less frequently will people put forward viable solutions.

It is my belief, and that of the Youth Sport Trust, that if young people enjoy taking part in physical activity early on in life they will go on to lead active healthy lifestyles, but if they have a bad experience, particularly at school, they could be put off for ever.

And this is where the problem lies for many primary schools. Through our research on Bupa Start to Move, a programme focused on improving PE in primary schools, we have discovered that many primary school PE teachers lack the confidence to deliver the subject well.

This can be for a number of reasons but there is one that stands out above most. For many, their lack of confidence is borne from initial teacher training not dedicating sufficient time to what constitutes high quality PE and how it should be delivered.

This is why we are working with Bupa to offer training to primary school teachers to boost their confidence and understanding of PE. It is going very well with more 1,700 schools expecting to benefit from the training this year alone.

John Steele believes that it is important that young children have a positive experience of PE if physical activity is to be part of their lives after they leave school

Our work with another partner, Matalan, is also addressing some of the key challenges in this area. Part of Matalan Sporting Promise gives teachers the opportunity to attend free workshops and to receive resource cards, posters, and access to online resources all aimed at boosting primary school PE. This programme has reached thousands of schools already and is growing all the time.

In addition to our work in this area, Government investment over the next two years which kicks in from September, is dedicated to primary school PE and school sport and has the potential to make a significant contribution if schools channel the funding correctly.

There is guidance available to schools in how to best utilise the funding, but in my opinion they should be focusing on enhancing their own teaching staff in how to best deliver PE, which will lead to sustainable solutions, rather than outsourcing their funding to external providers that will leave no real legacy once the funding ends.

The Department of Health also recently announced an additional £3 million ($5 million/€3.8 million) towards Change4Life Sports Clubs, which the Youth Sport Trust deliver. These clubs have been created to increase physical activity levels in less active seven- to nine-year-olds, and are proving successful in educating young people about the importance of living a healthy active lifestyle.

Whilst these are all very positive steps, there is much work still to be done to tackle growing levels of inactivity amongst children. It is a problem for all of society not just schools and it is widely recognised that we are at risk of a ticking health time tomb if we do not take action to tackle the issue.

We must give every opportunity for young people to enjoy taking part in physical activity and sport - so that the type of research findings we have witnessed this week, become a thing of the past.

John Steele is the chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust