You may have seen the recent reports from UKActive and the Children’s Commissioner for England, both highlighting the importance of informal, everyday physical activity - and active outdoor play in particular - for children’s health and wellbeing.

One simple, low-cost way that local authorities can enable this is via the resident-led street play model, first developed in Bristol and now spreading around the country. 57 local authorities now have a street play policy in place, allowing residents to open their streets for play on a regular basis, and over 800 streets have taken this up.

Evaluation has shown that children are up to 5 times more active during street play sessions than on an average day after school. Playing Out, the national organisation for street play with years of experience in supporting councils and residents, are running a low-cost Essential Street Play Training Day for local authorities on 6 November and they have some places left.