The benefits of outdoor play

Children thrive when playing and learning outdoors. Their health, wellbeing and development is enhanced. Physical activity is boosted because they naturally move so much more than indoors. The space afforded by being outdoors and the variety of environment on offer encourages children to run and climb, jump and skip, to test and increase their strength and fitness in a way that is fun. And the enjoyment makes them much more likely to return to these activities again and again, building their fitness and strength and developing physical skills.

Scotland has an abundance of places for children to play - from beaches to woodlands, to meadows, moors and mountain sides. So why are children not playing in them nearly as much as they should?  

Barriers to outdoor play

There is an issue with perception. City streets, once the playing field for games of Kick the Can are now places with No Ball Game signs and parked cars. There is often a view that children playing out in the street either will cause trouble and that they are unsafe because of perceived dangers posed by adults. There is also still a perception among many adults that play is a low-priority, frivolous activity when in fact it’s vital to the healthy development of children and should be an integral part of growing up.

School playgrounds tend not to encourage playful experiences, often being flat, dull, concrete, fenced off spaces. We have all heard the, perhaps apocryphal, stories of running being prohibited in break times at some schools. True or exaggerated, they contribute to a mood of discouragement.

And then there is the weather. If it rains, children have to stay inside, both at school and increasingly at home too. In Scotland, that really restricts children’s ability to play outside!

Inspiring Scotland

Inspiring Scotland (see below) has been working to increase outdoor play provision in communities, schools and early years settings for eight years in partnership with government, local authorities and local organisations, and we are making strides in the right direction.

We constantly evaluate and the feedback we get is always the same: children are not playing enough and are not used to the physical activity involved in outdoor play. This affects their fitness, health, mental wellbeing, cognitive development, the growth of their imaginations and creativity and their preparedness for learning in school. It affects their whole lives. They are less likely to be active and therefore healthy adults, and less likely to encourage their own children to play outdoors thereby creating a vicious cycle. 

A national collaborative commitment

We realised there were many organisations from health, education, childcare, government bodies and academics, as well as environmental organisations and business people who shared our concerns about insufficient outdoor play and it’s long-term effects on children. We brought these groups together with the idea that a concerted, collaborative effort could bring about the change we were all seeking.

We teamed up with Scottish government to form the Scottish Outdoor Play and Learning Coalition, and through a consultative process with many of the signatories, created the Position Statement, which launched in October 2018.

The Position Statement

The Position Statement is about creating a coherent and collective national drive towards increasing outdoor play. There are already strong local and national policies and some understanding across sectors that outdoor play is important, but policies and actions were not always joining up so outcomes where not at a level that we all wanted.

The Position Statement comes with commitments for organisations to act on their beliefs about outdoor play. When it comes to playgrounds and other outdoor spaces, we hope this will have a significant effect. There are commitments about creating more play-friendly spaces as well as encouraging the use of existing spaces much more. We are working with Scottish government, eight local authorities and many of the signatories to the Position Statement to put this into practice. We believe the benefits to our children will be enormous. As the Position Statement says; outdoor play is life-enhancing and we want nothing less for our children.

Conclusion

There is an increasing recognition of the enormous benefits of outdoor play to help combat the health crisis in Scotland and the UK as a whole, linked to physical inactivity. The 50 signatories to the Position Statement are testament to this movement and we have already had other organisations get in touch because they want to sign up too. If everyone with a vested interest in our children’s future (and we believe that means everybody) can work together to encourage our children to play outdoors we can avert this crisis and support our children to thrive.

Inspiring Scotland and Thrive Outdoors

Formed in 2008, Inspiring Scotland strives for a Scotland without poverty or disadvantage.  It raises money from private individuals, trusts, foundations and the Scottish government and invests in funds addressing specific themes, nurturing partnerships with charities and organisations through shared goals and interests.

Thrive Outdoors is one of Inspiring Scotland’s 10 thematic funds which, through outdoor play, supports Scotland’s children health, wellbeing and development. Since 2010, it has funded free play in communities, active Play in schools and leads on the development of outdoor early years education and childcare. In February, Inspiring Scotland received £862,550 from the Scottish government to encourage and support greater use of outdoor learning in the early years.