Outdoor Sport and Recreation

Simon Hart Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2014 Westminster Hall

[Simon Hart (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

I start by drawing Members’ attention to my declaration in the register. I thank the hon. Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies): his enthusiasm for this topic, and for Wales and everything it has to offer, is contagious. It is great to debate this topic—in this Chamber at any rate—as it joins so many people together in a common cause.

Much as I am delighted to see the Minister in her place, this debate could have been answered by the Department of Health, the Department for Education, the Treasury or a number of other Departments. Each has a real interest in this, both economic and social. I hope the Minister will acknowledge that this subject is inter-departmental. Every Department should look at this as an opportunity to improve its performance, rather than as something it needs to acknowledge in a token fashion.

I will concentrate on the benefits of outdoor education and learning for children in particular. It worries me that only 10% of children ever get to play outside these days, whereas 40% of their parents used to. One in three of our kids have never climbed a tree; one in 10 have never ridden a bike; remarkably, 42%—including me—have never made a daisy chain. That may seem an irrelevant contribution, but it demonstrates that we are talking about not just fitness, but culture, heritage and opening the eyes of people who might not have a daily opportunity to have their eyes opened to the extraordinary enrichment to their lives that just a few short hours out in the open air and the countryside provide.

A few Members might read that great magazine Country Life. A wide-ranging survey it carried out—a few years ago now, it must be said—asked questions of a number of schoolchildren aged between about six and 12. In answer to the question, “Why is it important to close gates when you go into the countryside?”, a worryingly large number replied, “To keep the elephants in.” When asked a question about what the greatest advantage was about living in rural areas, the answer came back, “Because there aren’t so many coppers.” This should demonstrate to us that, despite all the progress that has been made, there is still an awful lot we need to do to normalise life outside our urban areas.

Other Members have touched on the health benefits of outdoor activity. I like statistics, but it is still a very worrying situation that 28% of children are obese or suffer from obesity at some stage in their early years. That is partly because of the relatively small number who do one hour of vigorous exercise a day. That is all that is needed: one hour of vigorous exercise a day.

A number of excellent organisations have been mentioned so far. I will touch on the work of the Field Studies Council, not necessarily because it is better than other organisations, but simply because I learned an important lesson when I visited its centre in Stackpole in my constituency. It demonstrated to me something that I had not registered before. One of the values of outdoor learning to a lot of the children and young adults who go to that institution is that it teaches them that they can be good at something. If they do not function or perform to their best ability in a traditional classroom situation, there is often something they can do out there on a beach, in a forest or whatever it might be that they can suddenly excel at. When they discover there is something they can excel at outside, it is remarkable how they discover they can excel at things inside as well.

One of the things the Field Studies Council at Stackpole told me was that part of the problem was the attitude of the teachers who go with these kids. The teachers arrive on a Sunday night with no mobile phone reception, wondering what they are doing down there, wishing they were back at home, arms folded, slightly inclined to think, “Good luck. I haven’t been able to do anything with these kids, so I don’t suppose you will either.” At the end of one week at one of these institutions, they are already booking their trip for next year because they have seen, in such a short space of time, an absolute transformation in the self-confidence and ability of children who, to some extent, they had written off as failures in the classroom. Suddenly, someone who was good at identifying stars, or who learned about seashells or something like that went back to school and their performance in English, maths or history improved as a consequence. That is why I said that a Minister from the Department for Education could just as easily be sat on the Front Bench for this debate, soaking up the benefits for that Department that this kind of activity offers.

We of course hear about obstacles that present themselves; I am afraid that some of them are genuine. There is always some health and safety excuse for not doing these things: we hear long lists of reasons why “we can’t”, or “we won’t”. That is not very helpful either. There has been some progress by the Government—probably not enough—to sweep away what are, in some cases, completely unreasonable and impractical health and safety considerations that get in the way of these projects.

That is as much as I want to say. There are a few activities out there in the countryside that other Members will touch on that have social, economic and ecological benefits that are free to the taxpayer. When it comes to the departmental response—whether it is this Department or others—I hope Ministers will look at outdoor activity and recreation not as a cost but as an investment in the future health and happiness of young people in particular.