The Raising the Nation Play Commission Inquiry’s interim report highlights growing barriers to play in England, including playground closures, concerns about traffic and safety, cuts to park budgets and play facilities, the growth of a ‘No Ball Game’ anti-play culture and a reduction in school playtime.
According to the Inquiry, being led by entrepreneur and campaigner Paul Lindley - founder of Ella’s Kitchen, the time children spend playing outdoors has declined by 50 per cent in a generation, at least 400 playgrounds closed across in England between 2012-22, spending on play facilities fell by 44 per cent between 2017/18 and 2020/21, while the distance children are allowed to roam at the age of eight is estimated to have fallen from six miles to just over 300 yards over four generations.
The report reveals there has been a ‘significant’ decline in the amount of time children have for break in schools in England.
It analyses four national surveys carried out in 1995, 2006, 2017, and 2021, which show that the youngest school children in England have lost 23 minutes of breaktime a week on average compared to their counterparts in 1995. The average total time dedicated to breaktime in a week fell by 18 minutes over the same period for older primary school children, and by 17 minutes for Key Stage 3 children.
Schools with a higher proportion of children in receipt of Free School Meals have shorter breaktimes, it finds.
The report argues that an overbearing national curriculum and highly pressurised accountability system has led many schools and teachers to view breaktimes as nothing more than a loss of valuable teaching time.
To reverse the loss of playtime in schools, the Inquiry makes a range of recommendations to Government, including:
- Calling on Government to establish the first National Play Strategy for England since 2008 led by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport. The strategy would set out a clear, long-term vision to ensure children can easily access and enjoy places to play in public, at school, and at home.
- New statutory Department for Education guidance to ringfence time within the school day for breaktimes and lunchtimes, and support for The British Psychological Society’s call for an extra 10 minutes of play to be restored to the school day.
- Ofsted to include play sufficiency – specifically time to play - as a measure of school performance to encourage schools to boost play in school time and reward those schools who value play highly.
- Ringfenced funding for local authorities to maintain and renovate playgrounds and provide new ones in ‘playground deserts’.
- The adoption of a legally binding Play Sufficiency Duty for England, bringing England into line with Scotland and Wales, to ensure that local authorities provide sufficient play opportunities and to communicate them to parents and families.
- A Review of the use of ‘No Ball Games’ signs and update byelaws for Parks and Open Spaces to create a more welcoming, heathier, and active environment.
Paul Lindley, chair of the Raising the Nation Play Commission, said, ‘Play should be a crucial part of growing up. It improves development, physical and mental health, social skills, and school readiness.
‘Yet our Commission has heard countless examples of how England’s children are missing out on the same play opportunities that their parents and grandparents enjoyed.
‘We can’t continue to watch as our children become increasingly unhealthy and unhappy.
‘Play is a crucial tool for reversing the growing number of children with obesity, mental ill health, and developmental problems. It’s time to get our children playing again.’
Baroness Anne Longfield, executive chair of the Centre for Young Lives and former Children’s Commissioner for England, added, ‘Generations of children are now growing up spending less time playing, less time outside, less time with their friends, and more time inside, glued to phones and social media. Play is being squeezed out of their lives, and the consequences for their mental and physical health, and their development, are dire.
‘This interim report puts forward positive, workable, evidence-based proposals to support those aims, including a cross-Government National Play Strategy for England that would boost those ambitions.’
The Raising the Nation Play Commission, a year-long independent inquiry into why play is critical to the wellbeing of children in England, was launched in June 2024 by its chair, entrepreneur and campaigner Paul Lindley OBE - founder of Ella’s Kitchen. It is working in partnership with former Children’s Commissioner Baroness Anne Longfield’s Centre for Young Lives think tank.
