Something has gone seriously wrong for children in the UK. On the radio, in the papers, among friends; everyone is talking about the epidemic of childhood unhappiness and anxiety. Smartphones, social media, and easy access to violent content and pornography are, of course, part of it. The rising tide of anger at under-regulated tech companies is justified. But there has been another huge change to childhood in recent years – the almost total loss of children and their play from the streets and neighbourhoods around us.
Children and their games, their scooters, their chalks and bouncing balls have vanished, replaced by speeding traffic and parked cars. And in losing doorstep play, children have lost the hours of exploration and physical activity that nature designed them to seek out in order to thrive. This, along with the slow erosion of time for play in schools and the austerity-driven closure of youth spaces, is profoundly changing childhood.
I know this because for the past five years I have been reporting around the country on the war on play. It’s a war that, sadly, children and the adults fighting for them are in danger of losing.
In 2019, I reported on the scandal of segregated playgrounds. Developers on several new-build estates in London were deliberately blocking children in social housing from shared play spaces and gardens. The segregation was appalling, and led to widespread political condemnation. But I believe it was only possible because of a much deeper injustice.
Play was already starting to be seen as a form of antisocial behaviour. Children and their play have been pushed off the streets and estates where they grow up, through increased traffic and a “no ball games” culture. With other communal spaces no longer home to crowds of children, it became easy to segregate the tiny spaces allotted for play.
The government cannot continue to ignore this issue. Yesterday saw the final session of a parliamentary inquiry into children, young people and the built environment. MPs on the select committee that scrutinises the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have been hearing evidence since January on how we can plan and develop for children’s needs rather than against them.
Yesterday, the inquiry questioned the minister for planning Lee Rowley. He and the government’s chief planner, Joanna Averley, were pressed repeatedly on why children are missing from planning guidance. “We know they are less important than bats,” pointed out the MP for Dover, Natalie Elphicke.
But both Averley and Rowley stuck to their guns. Children, said Rowley, do not need any further mention in planning. “You could then say disabled people need mentioning, or people from certain geographic areas.” His priority, he said, is to get homes built.
So that’s the government view: more homes, and no mention of children in planning. Rowley added, “As far as I can see, things have improved for children in terms of play provision – I can’t provide evidence but I’m sure they have.” And with that comment, he dismissed the pages of evidence presented to the inquiry that shows the vanishing of children from their own streets in recent years – and the huge cuts to local authority play budgets.
I gave evidence in the first session alongside Alice Ferguson, co-founder with Ingrid Skeels and Amy Rose of Playing Out, the parent-led movement that started with just one play street in Bristol and has grown into a national campaign to restore children’s freedom to play out near home. It is partly down to their dogged lobbying that this inquiry is taking place. This is real people power – from play streets to parliament.
As thousands of homes and new developments spring up around the country, change is urgently needed. The National Planning Policy Framework mentions lorries more often than children – newts and bats are better protected than play.
Two other key experts in this area are the architect Dinah Bornat and writer Tim Gill. Both are advocates of child-friendly design, working with leading developers to promote doorstep play and neighbourhoods where children are free to move around, safe from traffic. But in the February evidence session, led by Labour MP Clive Betts, both made stark warnings that children are “completely ignored” in planning.
What campaigners would like to see come out of this fiasco is a cross-departmental approach to consider children’s needs in every area of public life. This could be led by a cabinet level minister for children.
In terms of planning – all new developments should be child-friendly, and existing neighbourhoods adapted with child-friendly measures.
Housing associations and local councillors need clear guidance to refer to so that when they get complaints about play (and they do get these complaints), they can write back, stating clearly that children have a right to play near their own homes.
Again and again, I have seen the impact of this lack of consideration in children’s lives.
I recently wrote about residents on the Bells Estate in Peckham. Southwark council ran out of money after ripping out their playground during redevelopment, and have left the site covered in rubble.. There is no law or policy that protects play spaces in situations like these.
Just down the road in New Cross, south London, children at Kender primary school waited several years while the Peabody housing association used their much-loved park to store building materials. While at a high-end development near Tower Bridge, I met families living in social housing flats who were sent warning letters for letting their children play in the corridors.
In Rhyl, one of the poorest parts of Wales, developers working for the council ripped out a much-loved playground to make way for flood defences, with local families complaining of a “shameful” lack of consultation. A furious local resident wrote to me “the impact of the development on local sea life was discussed more than the impact on children”.
This extends beyond local government and developers. It seems we have turned against play across society. When the Guardian did a call-out on the barriers children face playing outside, families told us of threats from neighbours and even of police being called about children for playing outside.
So while it is true that being online is harming children’s mental health, we need to also focus on what children do actually need – and that is as much free outdoor play on their doorsteps as possible.
Harriet Grant is a freelance reporter specialising in human rights and social affairs
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