Outdoor Education plays a vital role in our education system and no child or young person should be without access to some form of outdoor education during their time at school.
As a country we are extremely lucky to have both day and residential centres.
The Covid pandemic has proved challenging for this sector and to date, many centres have not been able to reopen, causing grave concern for their future.
I want to see all these centres still open in September of next year and for our young people to have even more access to them than ever.
Over the past few months, I have been working with Outward Bound, one of the UK largest providers to lobby the Government on this issue.
To date I have:
- Written to the Secretary of State for Education about this issue
- Written to all Education Ministers about this issue
- Shared a briefing paper, including proposals with the Department for Education
- Met with the CEO of Outward Bound
- Met with the River Dart Country Park