Children and Young People
 | Improving our quality of life without damaging the environment and adversely affecting future generations is a necessary part of building a society that cares for its children and young people. This is an issue of intergenerational equity impacting on children and young people’s rights to a safe, healthy and sustainable future. |
We would like to see...
... a broader recognition in children and young people's policy and services that the environment is a key determinant of well-being alongside more established social and economic factors. A higher priority needs to be placed on efforts to improve children's everyday environments - their homes, streets, schools, communities - acknowledging their right to a safe, healthy, enjoyable and rewarding present, and a sustainable future. Problems like fumes, congestion, litter, loss of green space and continuing carbon emissions compromise all of these things.
 |
What do local and global environmental issues have to do with Every Child Matters?
It’s not just the big environmental issues like climate change that pose problems for young people. Many children are expected to live in polluted, noisy, concrete environments with limited or no access to green space and the benefits this can bring.
Every Child Matters (ECM) was published before the Government’s Sustainable Development Strategy, Securing the Future. The Sustainable Development Commission were asked by DCSF to examine the intersection of these two important areas of policy to better support children’s well being, now and in the future.
Our project and publication, Every Child’s Future Matters, explores the influence the environment has on children’s well-being. It is written for everyone designing and delivering services that impact on children’s lives. Using a mix of commissioned research and the experience of nine local authorities, this work demonstrates how attention to the environment provides a powerful mode of delivering ECM outcomes.
| Our generation is the first to knowingly degrade the environment at the expense of children now and in the future – a fact that challenges much of our rhetoric about the importance of children in society. | The evidence compiled in our report suggests that it may not be possible to deliver the goals of ECM at all unless the environment becomes one of its leading considerations. |
Three immediate priorities are identified:
Traffic: aside from safety issues air and noise pollution spoils children’s neighbourhoods. ‘Traffic taming’ should be a priority so that young people can reclaim their mobility by foot and bicycle, and travel safely around their homes and to and from local services like schools.
Green space: for the benefit of children’s mental and physical health and their freedom to play, those involved in planning and regenerating residential areas should make pedestrian access to (and management of) quality green spaces a high priority. Housing should also be sited well away from major sources of pollution and noise like main roads.
Climate change: given Stern's findings, can children ‘achieve economic well-being’ in the face of climate change? All programmes and policies brought forward by government and public service providers should be screened for their contribution to carbon emissions, and challenged if they cannot be accomplished within environmental limits.
 | » Download Every Child's Future Matters - Main report |
More Information
» Children's policy needs an environmental steer
» Young children’s views of their environment
- Change text size
