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The government asked children and young people what they wanted, and now they know - more leisure time options. Sarah Wellard reports.

When the government published its draft framework for a national strategy for children and young people at the end of last year,¹ it made clear that it wanted children to be included in the consultation. Around 2,500 children and young people participated, attending meetings, completing activity booklets, questionnaires, and sending in postcards.

Althea Efunshile, head of the Children and Young People's Unit, says she is "delighted with the response. It's a good basis for making a judgement about what issues young people feel are important."

When children under 12 were asked what were the most important things to include in the government's plan, more than half of those who responded wanted more activities, more parks or more youth clubs. Similarly, of teenagers sending in ideas about what they would change if they were prime minister for a day, over a third wrote about something to do with leisure - more youth clubs, parks and sports centres.

How much do we value children's play? Looking around at our streets and playgrounds, the answer seems to be not very much. The rights of motorists come before those of children to play safely. Playgrounds are often poorly maintained, with the result that they are barely used. For older children things are even worse. The youth service has been run down and adventure playgrounds and skateboard parks are rare. More traffic on the roads, parents' fears for their children's safety and increased fencing and security on areas of undeveloped and disused land mean that children are less able to play out than they used to be. Despite the common perception of couch potato children watching television and playing computer games, we know from other surveys that children want more opportunities for recreation, and especially to play outside.²

Efunshile agrees that there isn't enough for children and especially teenagers to do. Through her involvement in the Treasury's cross-cutting review of children at risk of exclusion, she has highlighted the importance of youth and recreational services. "I can't prejudge the outcome of the spending review, but we have been getting strong messages about these sorts of services being key, along with child and adolescent mental health and family support."

And there are other signs that the government is beginning to take play more seriously, with extra funds being made available through the New Opportunities Fund and local strategic partnerships for expenditure on children's leisure facilities. However, children and young people are not only interested in play and recreation. They also share many of their parents' concerns, about health, education, crime and the environment. Efunshile says, "It's a mature response about a range of issues. They want to be listened to and have more of an impact on decision makers."

Were any of the issues identified a surprise? Efunshile answers: "I was surprised at the extent to which they saw family support services as important. But it tallies with what we find in terms of insufficient family support on the ground and the need to focus on children and young people in the context of family and community and not just as individuals. We need to put in place more preventive services and more adolescent mental health services."

Some interesting differences arise when you look at the breakdown of responses by age, ethnicity and gender. For example, when under 12s were asked about their dream for children, those with special educational needs or a disability were more than twice as likely as other respondents to mention better education. Girls were more likely than boys to mention bullying and being happy. Non-white children more often mentioned concerns about education, and being listened to.

Having collected these responses, what is the CYPU going to do with them? Efunshile says: "What's important is that they feed into the final strategy document at the end of the year. They need to be included in the outcome measures."

Finally, does Efunshile think the message about listening to children is really getting through? "Where we've been really successful is that 11 government departments have agreed to develop action plans for listening to children and young people. It indicates that the government is taking it seriously and thinking about how children's participation affects services."

¹ Building a Strategy for Children and Young People Consultation Document, CYPU, November 2001

² Cole-Hamilton, Gill, Making the Case for Play, National Children's Bureau, 2002