SPPA Welcomes Outdoors Guidance

In SPPA we believe that the 'great outdoors' develops children's minds, bodies and souls. It gives them the opportunities they require, to learn, and to gain the confidence and resilience needed to manage risk for themselves.  Increasingly, with the support of parents and the Care Commission, pre-schools services and their staff are managing activities outdoors on a regular basis. They are recognising the outdoors as a wonderful natural environment for learning and development, and are becoming more confident at venturing out, as they realise that the occasional scraped knee is worth the fun, smiles, friendships, adventures and knowledge that children gain from being outdoors.

Although residential care is not within SPPA's area of work, the sentiments and the common sense approach that are expressed in Go Outdoors: guidance and good practice on encouraging outdoor activities in residential childcare will resonate with many organisations that work with parents, children and young people.  

The guidance has been produced by Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People (SCCYP), the Scottish Institute for Residential Childcare and the Scottish Government.