Running News Daily

Sebastian Coe has urged the Government to act now and get children back playing sport

 If schools can open then why can't clubs? Sport can save our children and Prime Minister Boris Johnson must act now!

The Covid-19 pandemic is a watershed moment in our times. The pandemic has not only upended the way we live our daily lives but it has also become a catalyst that has led us to prioritise health and safety above all else.

In the process, unprecedented measures have been implemented and England is now in the throes of another nationwide lockdown, with families again forced to keep their distance, households prevented from mixing, and people unable to work.

While the restrictions are intended to curb the spread of the virus, they are also producing dire and unintended consequences.

Perhaps we all assumed that everyone across the nation would face the same hardships during the lockdown. However, many didn’t fully appreciate that it would end up hitting hard some of our poorest communities, particularly children living in poverty.

A study by UCL found that a fifth of schoolchildren had done little to no home learning over the summer term, perhaps because of a lack of access to the internet, laptops or computers at home.

What has now begun to emerge, is a mental health epidemic among our children, which we can’t afford to ignore. The NSPCC recently revealed that calls to ChildLine reached nearly 43,000 between March and October, with counsellors supporting children who were feeling isolated, anxious and insecure after being cut off from their networks of social support such as friends and teachers.

It is these sobering statistics that should spur us into action. We, and in particular the Government, have an opportunity to fix the problem before it becomes overwhelming. We must find ways to balance the restrictions with solutions that can help preserve the mental health and wellbeing of our youngest and most vulnerable.

Sport is an obvious solution. Ensuring children receive regular physical education, structured exercise and a means to run around and play during the lockdown can lead to unquestioned mental health benefits; improving self-confidence, nurturing positive relationships among peers, bolstering their mood, fostering social cohesion in communities and of course staying fit and healthy.

I’ve said it before. Sport is the hidden social worker in many of our neighbourhoods. Disadvantaged families often rely on support that sport gives them, whether it’s in the form of an after-school club, or a charity that caters for the young in the community.

Unfortunately, current Government restrictions have meant that many charities and community clubs have been restricted or prevented from providing that support to the people that need it most at a time when they need it the most.