Getting children moving is key to improving their mental health, say MPs

In its 14^th report, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on a Fit and Healthy Childhood considers the link between children’s positive mental health and physical activity. It looks at the effects of the digital age and its impact on children and young people’s mental health and well-being and the crucial role of parents and carers.

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It points to statistics showing that one in 10 children have a mental health diagnosis and one in four an undiagnosed mental health issue, and comes a month after health education in English schools became statutory alongside the expectation that pupils will be offered at least 30 ‘active minutes’ per day.

Entitled, ‘Mental Health Through Movement’, the report, which is sponsored by the universities of Bournemouth and Winchester, blames an ‘all pervasive digital culture for instilling a compulsion for children to stay indoors and stay still, alongside draconian reductions in opportunities for outdoor play.'

It says that children are pushed indoors by screens and pushed away from outdoor play, but schemes, such as the OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) Programme – a play-based intervention, Energise for Healthier Lives (E4HL) – a lifestyle support package for families in Camden, can offer a way forward if advocated by Government as part of a Movement in Mind strategy.

The APPG, which is jointly chaired by Steve McCabe, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak and Baroness Floella Benjamin, puts forward a number of recommendations, they include:

• A joined-up review of children’s health needs that addresses the collective of both the physical and mental health of a child.
• For educational settings to examine ways in which to include movement as part of their mental health curriculum delivery.
• Recognition of the value of prenatal movement on well-being and mental health and for his to be used as the starting point for policy formulation.
• For all schools and early years settings to provide developmentally appropriate physical activity so that children experience and associate movement with a positive sense of identity and well-being.
• All education and health professionals to receive training in the variety and simplicity of movement experiences from birth that are instrumental in the developmental of mental well-being.
• Play training to be a core component of all professional training for early years and primary school teachers and support staff
• Expansion of public playground provision, reversing the current closure trend.
• For Government to publish age-related screen times in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations.
• For doctors, nurses and teachers in early education settings and primary schools to provide pre-emptive guidance to parents/carers about limiting media use in the home, raising the age for screen use, reducing the degree of exposure and discouraging screens in children’s bedrooms
• A permanent UK-wide taskforce for children and young people’s mental health to be established that brings together sector-wide experts to improve and update strategies for mental health services.

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Chair of the APPG and author of the report, Helen Clark said, ‘The examples that we are proud to showcase in this report are proof that simply throwing money at the problem won’t do. Parents need help in learning how to dissuade their children from excessive screen use and to promote positive movement and activity. Otherwise, how can they benefit from the great schemes operating in some parts of the country?

‘Parents want the best for their children and rather than resenting ‘NannyState’ interference are seeking a helping hand from the Government. All too often there is none forthcoming. It is time now for the Government to step up. Mental health services need money. But equally, parents must be empowered to create the opportunity in which to enable their children to develop the healthy movement behaviour that will enhance minds as well as bodies. Government must understand that to diffuse the crisis in children’s mental health before it becomes an epidemic, ‘motivating’ and ‘meddling’ are not synonymous.’

Chair of the Association for Play Industries (API), which contributed to the report, added, ‘All scientific evidence points to the fact that movement is vital for children’s mental health and for normal, healthy development.  We have now a generation of children who are being deprived of free, unstructured, outdoor play and as such, a troubled generation.  

‘Parents know this instinctively.  Over a quarter of parents who we surveyed who have children with mental health difficulties said that the lack of local playgrounds had played a role in their children’s problems.  This result was replicated also for those children experiencing issues with their sleep.

‘Frustratingly, one of the core solutions to the mental health crisis is a simple and relatively cheap one: as most children live in urban areas, playgrounds often represent their only opportunity for outdoor play.  Unless the alarming cuts to playground provision uncovered in our Nowhere To Play research are reversed, and more playgrounds created to secure future outdoor play, the mental health crisis will spiral yet deeper.’

A Department for Education spokesperson said, 'Physical activity is very important for young people, which is why we are encouraging children to exercise from a young age. This year, we published our School Sport and Activity Action Plan, designed to give all children, to take part in competitive sport and be active every day, both inside and outside school.

'As part of their qualification, early years practitioners are expected to understand the current dietary guidance for babies and children and to encourage them to be physically active through planned and spontaneous activity throughout the day.'

Child Mental Health Charter

Yesterday, a reception was held at the House of Commons to officially launch APPG member Play Therapy UK’s Child Mental Health Charter, which aims to convince the Government to introduce a Mental Health Bill in 2019 to support the one in ten children and young people thought to be affected by mental health problems.

The event was attended by members of the APPG, supporters of the Charter, MPs and the minister for mental health, suicide prevention and patient safety, Nadine Dorries.

So far 54 MPs, 180 organisations and 1,829 individuals have signed the Charter which builds on the APPG’s 12^th report, ‘Children’s Mental Health Beyond the Green Paper: The Role of Practice-Based Evidence’.

Speaking at the event, the minister said she could not give her support to the Charter currently as the Government has already allocated £2.3 billion to mental health.

However, she urged attendees to contribute to the consultation on Professor Sir Wessely’s recommendations to Government following his independent review of the Mental Health Act. The consultation is expected to go live in January.

• The APPG's report is available here