Submitted by: Play England

The National Council of Women, in Conference assembled, is concerned that: (i) UNICEF and Children’s Society reports continue to show that England is one of the unhappiest places to grow up in compared with other developed countries; (ii) sedentary behavior in babies, young children and teenagers is increasing year on year and is a recognised root cause of poor physical and mental health, poor brain development and poor educational outcomes; (iii) children who are active from an early age become active adults – with all the health and wellbeing outcomes that brings; (iv) just 21% of children play outdoors every day near home, compared to 71% of their parents when they were children; (v) with increased traffic, children can rarely play outside on their streets, urgesHer Majesty’s Government to:

(a) address the needs of children to play out more often;

(b) require all agencies working with children to take a risk-benefit approach;

(c) loosen the red tape preventing street closures for play.