Working with Camden Council to get children active

An initiative to see if playground design can inspire schoolchildren to be more active, Camden Active Spaces, is launched today at the Institute of Sport Exercise and Health (ISEH) in partnership with UCL and Camden Council. As part of the innovative project, designers have worked with children in seven schools across Camden to design unique structures for their playgrounds. These will be built over the summer holidays ready for the new school year, and the hope is that they will inspire children and their families to be more active and healthy. The new structures should help schools, voluntary clubs and volunteers to provide more extensive and exciting activities with the aim of increasing participation among children and communities. Children between the ages of 6 and 15 will be involved, although the under-10s are expected to benefit the most. To find out whether the initiative successfully increases children's physical activity, Dr Mark Hamer (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health) is leading an evaluation of the project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. "We will be carefully monitoring physical activity and fitness among children to see if the new playgrounds make a difference," explains Dr Hamer.