The Guardian view on outdoor play: ministers should give it a whirl | Editorial

The Belgian artist Francis Alÿs, whose exhibition about children’s games is at the Barbican in London, describes playground “tag” as being “always about the menace of other people”.

The game of chase depicted in one video in the show, shot in Mexico in 2021, is a Covid variant called Contagio. The players wear masks and, when tagged, switch these for red face coverings indicating that they are infected.

Play is a means of expressing all sorts of feelings – anxiety and aggression as well as friendliness. There is danger in these videos as well as hilarity: three boys in Ukraine play-act at being soldiers, stopping passing cars and demanding to search them. In another Mexican film, boys stalk each other armed with broken glass.

Some of the games – all of which are played outdoors – have all but disappeared from the UK’s parks and playgrounds. The image of a child rolling a hoop with a stick is familiar from Victorian illustrations; Mr Alÿs filmed children doing it on a dusty track in Afghanistan. Such images should not be idealised; western children, with their games consoles and smartphones, are vastly more fortunate than those filmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, spinning and laughing, barefoot in the dirt, until they collapse from dizziness. But this cross-cultural celebration of children’s games is a timely reminder of the importance of play, at a time when policymakers mostly ignore it.

There has been no national play strategy since 2008, and Labour’s work in this area was ignored by the Conservatives (the Scottish and Welsh governments have, by contrast, developed policies). Charities including Playing Out and Opal do what they can, but lack clout and resources. A report by MPs on children and the built environment was almost finished when the election was called; now, there is no guarantee that it will ever be published. The attitude of the last government can be gathered from the fact that the children’s minister, David Johnston, declined to give evidence .

Given Labour’s plans to relax planning laws, the question of how to ensure new developments meet children’s needs is urgent. In schools and education settings too, play needs more attention and could be a constructive flipside to limits on phone use. Experts including Prof Helen Dodd believe the lack of opportunities for free and adventurous play is one factor contributing to rising levels of anxiety in young people. The link between sedentary lifestyles, poor diets and unhealthy weights is widely recognised.

The Centre for Young Lives, which was set up by Anne Longfield, the former children’s commissioner for England, has launched a commission with a view to pushing this agenda forward. One suggestion is that Ofsted could add play to its inspection framework (though there is something dispiriting about the prospect of games being graded). Yes, play is instinctive, but the new government must move beyond the complacent assumption that children can reap its benefits in the absence of any public policy at all. Mr Alÿs’s video art is a reminder of play’s richness. Bridget Phillipson, the new education secretary, should take a run at it.