Play strategy could give youth a better option than devices - The Yorkshire Post

There is no use pretending we will get that world back, completely, but more can be done to get young people active in the great outdoors – even if that is just a few metres from their home.

A report by the Raising the Nation Play Commission inquiry has warned that playground closures, busier roads, shortened school break times and the dominance of have restricted children’s opportunities to play. “Too many of our children are spending their most precious years sedentary, doomscrolling on their phones and often alone, while their health and wellbeing deteriorates,” says the report.

Clearly, there are still ways of enjoying time outside. Children and parents often praise brilliant ideas such as urban farms or Forest School – a type of learning which offers exploration and “supported risk taking” in woodland. However, when it comes to having a bit of rough and tumble in their own neighbourhoods, children now simply do not get out as much. Digital entertainment and smartphones, doubling as pacifiers, have too strong a hold on young minds – and what parent can resist, even occasionally, something to keep their children occupied?

The report calls on the Government to establish a National Play Strategy for England, backed by an annual £125million investment.

Priorities are being set in today’s Spending Review – and many sectors are clamouring for funds – but it would be great to see children given better opportunities to cast aside their devices and enjoy the real world.