Politicians are celebrating the Olympics but forgetting their promises, says sports body

The body representing the country's biggest sporting organisations has accused politicians of basking in the glory of the Olympics throughout the party conference season while forgetting the promise to use them to build a national sporting legacy.

The Sport and Recreation Alliance (SRA), the umbrella group for 315 sports organisations including UK Athletics, the Football Association and the Rugby Football Union, is beginning a campaign to highlight the role sport can play in improving health, education, community cohesion and the fight against crime.

Calling for a cross-party commission on how to put sport at the heart of policy, the alliance is also preparing to present detailed research to ministers on the benefits to society of taking more physical exercise at all stages of life.

Andy Reed, chair of the SRA, said: "Politicians of all parties have undervalued the contribution of physical activity in making Britain a better place. It just doesn't get treated seriously as a public policy option. But in the face of the success of the Olympics and the Paralympics and all the evidence that we have put together, people have got to start paying attention. The party conference season has demonstrated that the inclination so far has been to enjoy the glory of success without actually concentrating on what made it happen. There was no substantive debate either at the conferences or in their fringes about how we can use the momentum created by the Games.

"We need radical thinking that takes the politics out of sport for the next generation so that we can replicate what we've achieved with the Olympics.

"A cross-party commission, which pins down sports policy in our schools, communities and at elite level for the next 20 years, would help us agree a way forward which all governments could buy into."

Research conducted over six months by the alliance has evaluated the effects of sport in staving off everything from cardiovascular heart disease to mental illness. It found that heart disease, which costs the NHS more than £30bn a year, can be cut by up to 40% if people take more regular exercise. In the field of mental illness the risk of dementia, which costs the NHS £23bn a year, can be reduced by about a third with increases in physical activity.

Similarly, by analysing attendance data in the workplace, the SRA found that physical activity programmes at work can reduce absenteeism by up to 20%. Data also shows that people who take 20 minutes of exercise a day aged 14 are three to four times more likely to participate in sport and recreation aged 31.

Reed added that now was the time to make sure ministers took up the challenge. "We have an unprecedented opportunity to use the galvanising power of the Olympics and Paralympics to make the cultural shift in this country to a genuine joined-up sport and physical activity strategy across all government departments – to ingrain it at the heart of government thinking. "

During the Olympics the government was criticised for failing to plan a post-Games sporting legacy. Lord Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association, said it was "wholly unacceptable" that so many of the UK's top athletes were privately educated and called for an overhaul of school sports policy to redress the balance. David Cameron has said he will ensure that sport becomes a compulsory part of the curriculum in primary schools, though this will not apply to academies as they do not follow the national curriculum. Ministers have also been criticised for allowing the sale of school playing fields. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport insisted the government has made a significant investment in its sporting legacy plan which has included committing £125m a year in lottery and exchequer funding into elite sport over the next four years.

The sport minister, Hugh Robertson, said: "The government is determined to deliver on its commitment to ensure a lasting sporting legacy from London 2012. Physical education is an integral part of the curriculum, we have created a new Olympic-style school sports competition, are investing £1bn in a comprehensive youth and community sports strategy, and are delivering new facilities up and down the country.

"The Department of Health's 'Change 4 Life' campaign is encouraging people of all ages to live healthier lives. This will help people build a 'sporting habit for life', delivering on Seb Coe's promise to 'inspire a generation' with our Games."