Summer Holiday Activities … Where Will Our Children Play? 

Well then colleagues it’s that time of the year again, the rain has started as the cricket is in full bloom and the summer holidays beckon. Many of your thoughts will be about how are you going to juggle work commitments and family life During the six-week annual summer break and many of you will be worrying about some of the families that you support.

This year however, we are experiencing economic uncertainty which sadly does affect us all, the cost-of-living crisis is having such an impact on families as many struggle to deal with the rising costs of everyday life.  

The cost of living crisis is also hitting many providers of sports and physical activities, we have seen reports of swimming pools having to close due to increased energy costs, a sports centre in Derbyshire has been at risk of closing( like many across the country) again due to increased energy costs, many grass roots and community sports clubs have also been affected, parents are struggling to buy sports equipment and even travel to sports events with their children.  

These are all very worrying trends especially as we recognise the value that sport can play on our children and adults mental and physical health. We also worry about where our children will play over the summer holidays if activities are being reduced. The Holiday Activities and Food (HaF) programme provides welcome access to high quality activities and food for school aged children during the school holiday periods, but it isn’t free access for all and access is reliant on a criteria of accessing benefits related free school meals.

Whilst we all welcome this initiative and hope that the HaF programme is a success everywhere its hosted we do worry about those families who do not meet the criteria and can’t afford to access the provision that is on offer where they live, this coupled with a reduction in providers delivering activities can mean that many children will not be able to access any summer activity provision. 

This “perfect storm” of uncertainty and worry is a deep cause for concern for all involved in preventing and addressing child exploitation, sadly from previous experience we know that perpetrators will be targeting children during the summer holiday period (and before) as organised crime groups (OCG’s) continually spot opportunities to exploit children.  

One of our main concerns is those children unable to access activities due to cost and will their time be spent in the digital environment due to boredom and ease of access which does present heightened risks of grooming, the potential for sharing self-generated indecent images of themselves and worryingly something that many parents may not be aware of is money laundering and debt bondage. 

Sadly many children will be aware of their parents financial predicament, the cost of living crisis and the continuing increase in mortgage rates is regularly on the news and so many children will be worried about the stress their parents are under, OCG’s know this and will be targeting children who at times may feel responsible and want to help out their parents, easy prey for the OCG’s.  

Our good friends from The Children’s Society have produced a very useful article for parents to help them understand the pressures that their children may face whilst online, the link below will take you to a page full of information and links which explains the concepts around money laundering, debt bondage, fake job adverts and access to quick cash.   

https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/blogs/criminals-capitalising-cost-living-crisis

Please do share this article with your colleagues, your networks, schools, sports clubs and your social media accounts and help to keep parents and children informed about the risks that their children can be exposed to online and lets all try to keep children “safer” during the forthcoming summer holiday break.   

The NWG Network are always happy to have a chat with any of you regarding this article or any issues to do with children who may be at risk of or being exploited.  

Kind Regards Kev. 

 
Kevin Murphy 
Safeguarding in Sport Lead 
NWG Network 
Office: 01332 585371