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Memorandum submitted by Sustrans
Sustrans
is the Our vision is a world in which people choose to travel in ways that benefit their health and the environment. We work on practical, innovative solutions to the transport challenges facing us all. Sustrans is the charity behind the award winning National Cycle Network, Safe Routes to Schools, Bike It, TravelSmart, Active Travel, Connect2 and Liveable Neighbourhoods, all projects that are changing our world one mile at a time. 1 Summary 1.1 The importance of active travel and active play in early years should be reflected in the way children's centres are set up and operate, particularly in selecting their location, in their site design and the surrounding street environment. 1.2 Through their focus on very local communities and on engaging families as well as children, children's centres provide a good opportunity to support and promote healthy lifestyles, including the promotion of a habit of healthy, active travel through walking and cycling. 1.3 This cannot be achieved without consideration of the extent to which families are able to walk or cycle to the centres. 1.4 Children's centres which are retro-fitted into buildings originally intended for other purposes can present particular barriers to walking and cycling access and need to be selected and designed carefully.
2 Introduction 2.1 This response is based on Sustrans' practical and policy work to create environments in which people choose to travel in ways which benefit their health and the environment. This includes direct work with children's centres, for example through our 'Active Travel and Play South West' project (funded by the Department of Health South West). 2.2 The easiest and most acceptable way for people to become more active is by increasing physical activity which can be incorporated into daily life, such as walking or cycling instead of car-use.[1] Our work with children's centres in the South West has involved helping them to embed active travel and active play into their work, to promote a culture of daily physical activity among children and families and to address barriers to active travel in their local built environment. 2.3 We welcome the Committee's inquiry into Sure Start children's centres and the opportunity to respond to the issues under consideration. We urge the Committee to consider the wider issue of travel as a key element of the accessibility of Children's Centres and would be happy to discuss this further.
3 Importance of active travel and active play in early childhood 3.1 Many factors have led to a reduction in children's physical activity, including sedentary lifestyles, increasing car ownership and increased allocation of road space for motor vehicles. There is a particular need to increase levels of active travel among pre-school age children. By the first year of school, 22.6% of children are overweight/obese[2] and research done by Sustrans for the Department of Transport's Sustainable Travel Demonstration Towns programme in 2004 showed that children not yet at school made 61% of their trips as car passengers, and only 39% by sustainable transport modes.[3] 3.2 The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance 'Promoting physical activity for children and young people' makes a number of recommendations to early years settings. These include giving children opportunities for physically active play each day, encouraging a culture of active travel from an early age and for those working with children and young people to act as role models by incorporating physical activity into daily life.[4] Children's centres are well placed to do this.
4 Strategic planning for children's centres 4.1 The Foresight report on obesity cited the 'walkability and cyclability of the built environment' among the top five responses likely to have an impact on reducing childhood obesity.[5] The built environment can make a significant contribution to families' ability to choose to travel actively when accessing services at children's centres. For this to be achieved, centres must not be developed in isolation from the local walking and cycling infrastructure. 4.2 Location of the centres is all-important, to ensure that walking and cycling are an option for the families using them. Walking and cycling routes, area wide 20mph speed restrictions and the availability of cycle parking, for example, should be considered as an intrinsic part of developing and designing new children's centres. If the locations selected provide poor access for families to walk and cycle, this may result in increased car use and lower levels of physical activity. For families without motorised transport (and car ownership is lower among poorer socio-economic groups) this may impact on their ability to access children's centre services. 4.3 Good walking routes to the centres can also improve access to nearby facilities which staff in children's centres may benefit from using as part of their service delivery, e.g. parks and open spaces for active play, especially where on-site outdoor space is limited at the centre itself.
5 Working with other partners and services 5.1 Children's centre managers and early years strategic leads within local authorities should work more closely with local transport and highway planners, to help ensure the transport infrastructure serving the centres supports active access for staff and families using them. 5.2 In some cases centres have received support from School Travel Advisers, particularly where they are co-located with schools. There is an opportunity to develop and extend this relationship between centres and transport planning colleagues, to help them promote active travel and make infrastructure improvements to support this. In the context of the ongoing review of the Travel to Schools Initiative by the Department for Transport and the Department for Children, Schools and Families, we would urge the committee to support the specific inclusion of children's centres within this programme.
6 Access for the most vulnerable 6.1 Some of the most disadvantaged people in society are also the most inactive and have the greatest incidence of health conditions related to low-levels of physical activity. The focus of Children's Centres on working with vulnerable groups offers a good opportunity to tackle health inequalities, through promoting active travel and active play and particularly in addressing how families chose to travel to the centres.
[1] Department of Health, 2004, At least five a week: Evidence on the impact of physical activity and its relationship to health [2] Department of Health, 2008, National Child Measurement Programme [3] Based on unpublished
analysis of baseline data from the English Sustainable Travel Towns
(Darlington, [4] National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2009, Promoting physical activity for children and young people [5] Government Office for Science, 2007, Foresight Tackling Obesities: Future Choices
Relevant Sustrans resources Available to download at http://www.sustrans.org.uk/play Sustrans, 2009, Routes to Play: A guide for local authorities on helping to ensure children and young people can get to play spaces actively and independently Sustrans
and Play Sustrans, 2009, Information Sheet FH13: Active play and travel
Available to download at http:// www.sustrans.org.uk/what-we-do/active-travel/active-travel-publications Sustrans, 2008, Information Sheet FH12: Active travel and health inequalities
October 2009
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