Girls and boys, go out to play – it’s a pastime that’s

New commission will look at how to restore children’s right to roam to help tackle soaring mental health issues and obesity

Colin Ward, architect and anarchist, urged parents in his influential 1978 book, The Child in the City, to let their children “out of the sandbox” – the equivalent of today’s iPhone and iPad and supervised activities (if it’s Monday, it must be ballet, judo and an introduction to Mandarin …) – and let them rip wild in the city to explore, hunt, collaborate, mess up and create without interference from adults who think they know best. In short, in spite of parental fears about “molesters, muggers and motorists”, give children back their freedom to play, a pastime in danger of dying out. Can this idea be revived?

On Tuesday, the Raising the Nation Commission on Play is launched, a year-long inquiry backed by Anne Longfield’s Centre for Young Lives, supported by 12 commissioners, who are experts in why play is vital for the social, physical and mental wellbeing of children, working in collaboration with young advisers. The commission will hold workshops, take evidence, visit innovatory projects and produce a set of recommendations, including a new national plan for play, in June 2025.