The Children's Plan

Background

According to the website, “The Children’s Plan aims to make England the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up.” The Plan fits alongside the initiative, Every Child Matters

The Children's Plan is broken into five categories, Creating an Entitlement to Positive Activities; Play; Risky Behaviours: Young People and Alcohol; Parents engaging with children's learning; Children and young people's health.

The Children's Plan highlights the importance of various actors in society working together to promote the well-being of children, including schools, children’s services, the voluntary sector and Government.

The government aims to put more money into safer places for children to play (especially the most disadvantaged); better health information for parents; and a review of primary school curriculum. Whereas emphasis is put on parents and families to take responsibility over issues of healthy eating and exercise.

The National Obesity Forum (NOF) complained about The Children's Plan's stance on obesity, “NOF cannot but express its profound disappointment that the Children's Plan virtually ignored childhood obesity.”

The Children's Plan: A Progress Report

The section on child obesity points to the £372m government intitiave Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives that aims to lower obesity levels to that 2000 by 2020. The Children's Plan claims that in addition to this, it will invest £783m for sport in schools and £650m for improving school food, which includes £150m for school dining areas/ kitchen improvements. A free, healthy recipe cookbook for 11 year olds will also be published.

As part of the drive to improve the food eaten by children in schools, the Fuel 4 Kids scheme provides children under 11 years with healthy, free food: breakfast and mid-morning snack of milk and fruit.