Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the ALB - Natural England - Children in Nature Programme Grant.

The Children and Nature Programme was delivered as part of Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan commitment to “encourage children to be close to nature, in and out of school, with particular focus on disadvantaged areas”. The programme closed in March 2022.

The programme supported three large scale delivery projects: Nature Friendly Schools; Growing Care Farming; and Community Forest and Woodland Outreach. The projects aimed to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds in England to have better access to natural environments. This was primarily delivered through school-focused projects, but also through care farms which offer services to children outside mainstream schooling as well as adults with therapeutic needs.

Through the programme 53,000 children experienced more time in nature via community forest visits, residential trips and improvements to school grounds. Care farming places per year increased to over 675,000, a rise of 54%. All projects reported improvements to children’s wellbeing, behaviours, achievement and attendance.

The findings from the Children and Nature Programme have already been used to inform developing policy, including through the Department for Education’s Sustainability and Climate Strategy. An independent evaluation of Nature Friendly Schools, the largest delivery project is due to be published shortly, as is a programme-wide delivery report.