The government recognises outdoor opportunities as a valuable part of the childhood experiences we want all children and young people to have.

Participation in enrichment activities can be associated with a range of positive outcomes, including wellbeing, life satisfaction and better mental health.

Our enrichment framework, published on 15 June, sets an expectation that all schools and colleges should offer a broad and well-rounded enrichment offer. Access to nature, outdoors and adventure, including camps, is specifically identified as one of the five areas that offers should cover as a minimum and highlights examples of offers including residentials.

The department is supporting the provision of more opportunities through the £132 million ‘Every Child Can’ programme and will be supporting 400 schools in deprived areas to develop offers in line with the benchmarks through our £22.5 million Enrichment Enhancement Programme. We will also be working to grow provision in areas where access is limited, working with Baroness Grey-Thompson as enrichment ambassador for this area.

The government recognises outdoor opportunities as a valuable part of the childhood experiences we want all children and young people to have.

Participation in enrichment activities can be associated with a range of positive outcomes, including wellbeing, life satisfaction and better mental health.

Our enrichment framework, published on 15 June, sets an expectation that all schools and colleges should offer a broad and well-rounded enrichment offer. Access to nature, outdoors and adventure, including camps, is specifically identified as one of the five areas that offers should cover as a minimum and highlights examples of offers including residentials.

The department is supporting the provision of more opportunities through the £132 million ‘Every Child Can’ programme and will be supporting 400 schools in deprived areas to develop offers in line with the benchmarks through our £22.5 million Enrichment Enhancement Programme. We will also be working to grow provision in areas where access is limited, working with Baroness Grey-Thompson as enrichment ambassador for this area.

This Government fully recognises the value of outdoor learning and its positive impact on young people’s wellbeing, school attainment, and reducing negative future outcomes.

As part of Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy, DCMS is investing over £60 million to provide local organisations with money to deliver high-quality youth work and enriching activities, as well as £350 million to refurbish or build up to 250 youth facilities. This will include outdoor activities and many other fun activities that benefit young people. We are designing the programme and will provide eligibility criteria in due course.

We have also launched Every Child Can, which will invest £132.5m of dormant assets exclusively across the five key categories of enrichment announced in the Enrichment Framework. This includes opportunities in nature, outdoor and adventure.

My department invested £4.7 million in the Adventures Away From Home Fund (AAfH) in 2025/26, supporting 31,160 bursaries for young people. Delivery of the fund ended on 31st March 2026 and no further funding has been allocated for 2026/27 for the AAfH.

The Department has not made a specific assessment of the potential impact of trail riding on people's health and wellbeing through active recreation. The Department recognises that participation in outdoor activities using trails, such as cycling, walking, wheeling, and running, can have a range of physical and mental health benefits through movement, social engagement, and access to green and blue spaces.

The Government and the National Health Service recognise that reducing physical inactivity in people of all ages is important in helping people live longer, healthier lives. As committed to in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will address physically inactivity and help build movement into everyday lives through investing in grassroots sports, developing a new Physical Education and school sports partnership network to support children reap the benefits of movement, and supporting cycling and walking infrastructure.

The Government is committed to ensuring everyone lives within a 15-minute walk of a green or blue space. Currently 80% of people are within this range, with this figure at 78% in urban areas. We have set out how we will make access more equitable and remove barriers to access in our Environmental Improvement Plan.

This includes progressing plans to deliver nine new National River Walks across England, one in each region, to enhance access to nature. The Mersey Valley Way, which runs from Stockport into Manchester, will be the first of those nine new walks. We will identify locations for the next tranche of river walks through a competition that will be launched before the end of 2026.

The Government is also investing £1 billion in tree planting and support to the forestry sector over this parliament. Access to nature is an important part of our work both within the public forestry estate and more broadly including with the 15 Community Forests which bring trees closer to where people live. Last year (2024/25) the Community Forests created over 2,200 hectares of new woodland, with 70% of woodlands planted having full or partial public access and 8% of schemes being within the most deprived areas of the country.

Rural areas offer significant potential for growth and are important to our economy, contributing over £259 billion a year to England alone.

Defra has not made a formal assessment on contribution of recreational shooting to the rural economy; however, we know the rural economy is diverse with 86% of rural businesses unrelated to agriculture, forestry or fishing.

The annual stakeholder engagement survey is now closed, and the results are currently being reviewed. The survey covers issues across the Defra brief, including nature and outdoor recreation.

The Government welcomes the All Party Parliamentary Group for Outdoor Recreation and Access to Nature's report and agrees with the report’s conclusion that time spent outdoors is vital for both physical and mental wellbeing. We are committed to expanding opportunities for people to connect with nature. Our current initiatives include the creation of nine new national river walks and three new national forests in England, helping to bring nature closer to communities across the country. We are actively shaping policy to support wider access to nature, working in collaboration with other departments and key delivery partners.

The Government recognises health and wellbeing benefits of outdoor access and is taking action to increase opportunities for everyone to engage with nature through nine new national river walks and three new national forests.

We work closely with DHSC to embed improved access to nature as part of preventative healthcare through, initiatives such as green social prescribing.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) recognises that access to a network of high-quality open spaces and opportunities for sport and physical activity is important for the health and well-being of communities, including children.

The Framework is clear that local planning policies should be based on robust and up-to-date assessments of the need for open space, sport and recreation facilities, and opportunities for new provision, including places for children’s play.

In the revised NPPF published on 12 December 2024 we strengthened the strong protections already in place by adding explicit reference to safeguarding “formal play spaces”. That means that facilities can be lost only where there is clear evidence they are no longer required, where equivalent or better provision is secured in a suitable location, or where development of the site is for alternative sports and recreational provision, the benefits of which clearly outweigh the loss of the current or former use.

The Government is committed to increasing access to nature for all, especially young people. In 2024, Defra invested £4.45 million in a second phase of the Generation Green programme, enabling over 25,000 disadvantaged children and young people to experience the natural environment. While Environmental Land Management schemes don’t specifically target youth, a new three-year capital item supports educational access to farmland and woodland for school groups and care farming initiatives.

Defra also leads a cross-Government Children and Nature Working Group to share best practices on improving outcomes for young people through nature. The £16 million Access for All programme has funded inclusive facilities like pedal and play areas for young people.

Most of the 254,000-hectare public forest estate managed by Forestry England is open to the public, welcoming 313 million visits annually. England’s 15 Community Forests, supported by the Nature for Climate Fund, engage schools and community groups in tree planting and outdoor learning—53% of England’s population lives within 10 miles of one.

Additionally, on 15 May 2025, DCMS announced £4.7 million to increase access to outdoor learning. The competition for the Adventures Away from Home delivery partner is live and closes on 15 July 2025.

The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is working to ensure this is safe and appropriate. This is why we have set out our ambitious manifesto commitments to create nine new national river walks and three new national forests in England, expanding access to the great outdoors. We have also committed to ensuring that everyone lives within a 15-minute walk of a green or blue space. Delivering this commitment will drive increased access to nature for both physical and mental health.

We work closely with Natural England on delivering enhanced access to nature and hold regular discussions on this topic. For example, we collaborate closely on delivery of the King Charles III England Coast Path, the new Coast to Coast National Trail, and Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework. We will continue to work together as we drive forward our commitments in this area.