UK to spend £88 million to get kids outside and away from screens

The government has announced an £88-million investment to offer young people outdoor activities as an alternative to sitting at home behind a screen.

In an announcement on Wednesday, 6 August, the government noted that outdoor activities were far from the default for young people today, as many spend more of their time detached from the real world and “stuck in their bedroomsor behind a screen”.

This new package of support aims to offer a solution to what the government calls ‘a worrying trend’ by delivering more opportunities for young people to engage in active outdoor recreation through after-school activities, volunteering, and youth clubs.

The support package includes the following:

• £22.5 million over three years to support extra-curricular activities in up to 400 schools, enabling access to sport, art and music, outdoor activities, debating, or volunteering.
• £30.5 million to improve youth club infrastructure in areas with the highest levels of child poverty, including purchasing new gym equipment and climbing walls.
• £8 million to support local authorities to deliver a high-quality out-of-school offer.
• A £19-million joint investment with The National Lottery Community Fund to deliver over a million additional hours of youth work in areas with high rates of anti-social behaviour.
• £7.5 million towards creating thousands of new places in youth organisations like The Scouts, Guides and Volunteer Police Cadets in areas of unmet demand.

This autumn, the government will publish its National Youth Strategy, which will set out its long-term vision for improving the prospects of young people in the UK.

“Growing up today is hard for young people. As they navigate their way through the online world, too often they find themselves isolated at home and disconnected from their communities,” said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

“As a government, we have a duty to act on this worrying trend. Today’s investment is about offering a better alternative: transformative, real-world opportunities that will have an impact in communities across the country, so young people can discover something new, find their spark and develop the confidence and life skills that no algorithm can teach.”

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