About the Movement

The movement was created by the founders to help address the growing sense of unease that currently exists about child wellbeing in the UK. It is particularly focused on the impact of developmentally inappropriate pressures during the early years of childhood i.e 0-8 years.  

See the SCM Board of Directors
See the SCM Aims and Objectives

         'It's about finding identity and worth not from 
   what you do, but who you are'

About us

Fundamentally we care about child wellbeing. But we really care about the wellbeing of parents, teachers and carers too – because we know that the values, mindsets and emotional wellbeing of the adults that children spend time with is massively important.

We are currently living in extraordinary times when children are subject to unprecedented cultural and environmental tensions. From the changing nature of family and community life, to the commercial influences of the media, the downward pressures of the schooling system, the changing nature of their local streetscapes and the extraordinary advancement of digital technology, their worlds are changing in ways that we are all struggling keep up with.

We don’t want to promote an over-idealised or nostalgic view of childhood, as over the centuries children have often led extremely hard lives and much that has changed has been for the better. However we do want to explore whether modern children are now missing the vital sense of belonging and contribution within community that was so much a part of children’s life before. We also want to suggest that some of the areas in which change is happening so fast could, or should, be slowed down until we better understand the implications.

There are some great things going on - as children are now more able to have a voice and to take control of their own learning. There are also many wonderful teachers and schools together with a number of exciting projects springing up in response to some of the changes.  People everywhere are starting to talk about what we really want for our children and to question the true purpose of education and the meaning of success. That can only be a good thing.

But some things are very worrying. For example these are some of the statistics that have recently been published about childhood in the UK:

1 in 10 children have a diagnosed mental health disorder
1 in 5 children are now registered as having Special Educational Needs
1 in 5 are showing the signs of having an eating disorder
1 in 3 are now clinically obese
1 in 12 self-harm

We know that children are amazing natural learners and that natural learning is all about personal meaning, deep engagement, adaptability and creativity. They are naturally curious and will instinctively seek out the level of challenge that they need from the environment. They will also seek to maintain their own internal developmental stability.

We believe we have a responsibility as adults to highlight and scrutinise anything that blocks these natural development processes.

We also believe that we need new forms of dialogue around wellbeing to help us better understand and promote the kind of healthy, caring and compassionate values and mindsets that we would all like to see in a 21st century world.

We very much hope that you will want to join us.

Save Childhood Movement, April 2013