The strategy proposed by the Raising the Nation Play Commission would ringfence school playtime, as evidence charts a “significant fall” in school breaktime over 25 years.
The ‘State of Play’ interim report by the Commission, published today, highlights how the sharpest falls are in primary schools in the most deprived parts of England.
-
Special Report: Early Child Development
-
Analysis: Play in peril - charting the decline of playgrounds across 40 years
Schools with a higher proportion of children in receipt of Free School Meals have shorter breaktimes, and while state secondary schools have suffered significantly in this area, there has been “no discernible decline in the time devoted to play in England’s private schools since 1995”, states the report.
The campaigners, including former Children's Commissioner for England Baroness Anne Longfield, are calling on the government to introduce a play strategy for England to tackle the problem.
Growing barriers to play include playground closures, concerns about traffic and safety, cuts to park budgets and play facilities, and the growth of a ‘No Balls Game’ anti-play culture.
The report warns that while play provides huge benefits to children, including improved memory and problem-solving skills, development of social skills like self-regulation and negotiation, better mental and physical health millions of children in England are missing out.
Digital tech dominating children’s time, as well as 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”, states the Commission, adding that “many schools are punitively withholding breaktimes from children for behavioural reasons”.
More than one in four children are overweight, one in five children and young people are struggling with a diagnosable mental health problem, and around one in three children not ‘school ready’, says the report.
Time spent playing outdoors has halved in a generation and fewer than three in ten children say that they play out on the street, it highlights, adding that at least 400 playgrounds closed across England between 2012-22.
More than 2 million children in England aged up to nine years do not live within a ten-minute walk of a playground.
The annual park budgets for England fell by more than £350 million between 2011-23 and spending on play facilities across England fell by 44% between 2017/18 and 2020/21.
The distance children are allowed to roam at the age of eight has been estimated to have fallen from six miles to just 300 yards over four generations.
And between 1995 and 2021, the youngest school children in England lost 23 minutes breaktime a week on average and for key stage 3 children this was cut to 17 minutes.
Recommendations include a national play strategy led by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, to ensure children can easily access and enjoy places to play in public, at school, and at home.
It also urges 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 should also include “play sufficiency” as a measure of school performance to encourage schools to boost play in school time and reward those schools who value play highly.
It also demands ringfenced funding for local authorities to maintain and renovate playgrounds and provide new ones in playground deserts, and the adoption of a legally binding play sufficiency duty for councils, bringing England into line with Scotland and Wales.
The Commission, which will publish a final report in June 2025, was launched in June 2024 by its chair Paul Lindley - founder of baby food business Ella’s Kitchen.
It is working in partnership with Longfield’s Centre for Young Lives think tank.
Lindley 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.
“An anti-play, ‘No Ball Games’ culture has emerged. Hundreds of playgrounds have closed, half of all youth centres have gone, school playing fields have been sold. Our streets and public spaces feel less safe, and children are losing hours of play time at school every month.
“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.”
Longfield said: “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.
“I welcome the government’s focus on widening opportunities for children and improving school readiness. 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.”
