It's time to let children back outdoors

HSE chair Judith Hackitt keeps a regular blog on the Health and Safety Executive website. Her posts are always worth reading, and one in particular drew our attention from her archives entitled Outdoor play - let our children take a risk.

It may be a few years old now, but the sentiment holds true. Here's an excerpt:

"Playing outside was something my generation did, and we were better for it. Certainly there were times when we came home with cuts and bruises - or even broken bones - but when we did we brought something else back with us: a lesson about the world.

If you fell out of a tree, it hurt. But it taught you either what not to do next time or that tree climbing was not for you...Subsequent generations have it seems gradually been deprived of that connection with the outdoors and the education that it afforded them.

When I speak to employers they often tell me that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find young people to take up apprenticeships who have the physical or mechanical aptitude of people they would have interviewed 10 or 15 years earlier. They haven't built a go-kart to race down a local hill, or repaired a puncture on their bike."

I'm sure many people feel this is the way things are today. Apprenticeships are growing in importance, but they need young people with the right (and basic) life experience and skills growing up should bring. So, we echo Judith's call to let children take a few risks outside.

Source: Judith Hackitt's HSE blog