National Children's Day to highlight adult wellbeing

Now in its third year, the annual celebration of childhood and children’s rights takes place on 15 May, with the theme ‘mindful, heartful childhood’.

Organised by the Save Childhood Movement, which launched the inaugural UK event in 2014, the aim is for as many people as possible to create events and activities that highlight and celebrate children’s rights.

Wendy Ellyatt, chief executive of the Save Childhood Movement, said, ‘National Children’s Day UK is all about celebrating the rights and freedoms of childhood – but children need the company of loving and attentive adults who have the time and energy to share their worlds. ‘Parents and teachers need more support and we hope that this year’s NCDUK will help to raise awareness about the importance of adult wellbeing, the impact of social inequality and the need to achieve a healthy work/life balance.’

The day is being used to raise awareness about the issues, to highlight the statistics on adult happiness, wellbeing and mental health in the UK, and to champion the work of the key people and organisations working in the field.

With this in mind, this year’s partners include the Parent Infant Partnership (PIP UK), headspace.com, the Mindfulness in Schools Project, as well as early years organisations PACEY, the Pre-school Learning Alliance, and the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship.

This year’s event is also partnering with the Childhood Trust’s ‘Summer Give’, a campaign designed to alleviate the impact of child poverty during the summer holidays.

School holidays can be particularly challenging for poor families when the structure, supervision and meals provided by school are not there.

Ms Ellyatt said, ‘We are delighted to be partnering with the Childhood Trust for this year’s NCDUK and hope that the initiative will rapidly grow to be a national platform alleviating the impact of child poverty.

‘There are currently 3.7 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2013 -14. That’s 28 per cent of children, or 9 in a classroom of 30 – with London the area with the highest rates of deprivation.

‘Together we hope to significantly raise awareness about the issue and to give the public an opportunity to get involved and really make a difference.’

In 2015, the charity’s first Summer Give raised more than £500,000 for 18 projects running holiday provision schemes benefitting 3,718 children.

From midday on 16 to midday on 18 May the Childhood Trust is running an online ‘double your donation’ campaign focused on charities who are supporting London's poorest children during the school holidays.

To coincide with NCD2016 Summer Give will open at midday on 16 May when all public donations made will be doubled to the participating projects until midday on 18 May.

Early years settings can run any big or small activity or event for the week up to and including the 15 May.

Ideas include a playing out day for local families, carrying out daily random acts of kindness during the week, holding a street party, and ‘a go home on time’ week for working parents to spend time with the family.

Launched in the UK by the Save Childhood Movement in 2014, National Children’s Day is now held at the beginning of the summer. Each year is themed around a particular aspect of children’s rights. In 2015 the theme was the science and magic of play and more than 300,000 adults and children took part across the UK.

Children’s Day was originally established in 1954 by the UN General Assembly and was intended as a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children.

• Download resources and register to take part at www.nationalchildrensdayuk.com

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