Children ‘missed fun, friends, family and freedom’ during lockdown, inquiry told

Children suffered isolation during lockdown and “missed fun, friends, family and freedom”, the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry has heard.

The inquiry is currently focusing on the impact on education, early years learning, and the experiences of children and young people up to the age of 24.

Submissions from children have been sought through Let’s Be Heard, a mechanism set up to accrue evidence from individuals, while organisations including education unions have also contributed to the inquiry, which is seeking to learn from the pandemic.

Lady Marguerite Hunter Blair, chief executive of the charity Play Scotland, said play allows children to develop cognitive, social and motor skills, but the lack of outdoor spaces to play during the pandemic had an “unequal impact” on marginalised families.

She praised the Scottish Government for becoming the first nation to reopen play areas and for allowing children under 12 “unrestricted” play, the inquiry heard.

However she said research shows many families experienced “deep isolation” while living in overcrowded flats in urban areas, and many children from asylum seeker or migrant families lacked wider networks.

The inquiry heard children from “marginalised” backgrounds suffered from the lack of outdoor play opportunities, compared to those with private gardens, or children from deprived backgrounds who had access to green spaces.

Lady Hunter Blair said: “Children really wanted their schools reopened and their clubs reopened, they wanted to visit their friends and they missed their families. For children who don’t have bigger families, it was really important to get their social networks resuming.”

She told the inquiry many parents struggled to adjust to working from home while also taking on more responsibility for their child’s education, and that two out of three “pillars of learning” – environment and other children – were taken away during the pandemic, though they still had the third which is adults.

Lady Hunter Blair said: “Some of the contributions from children were heart-breaking. They missed fun, friends, family and freedom.

“They missed the school clubs they went to and they missed going out playing football or hanging around. There was a lot of stress, anxiety and gratitude.”

She said children were aware of what was happening, and some put tape over the mouths of their dolls or teddies to copy mask-wearing, while others would invite a group of teddies to a birthday party before excluding some to comply with ‘rule of six’, the inquiry heard.

Lady Hunter Blair added: “Being in a ‘bubble’ led to children playing in more solitary groups – I think there’s a clear indicator that learning development was slower. Since the Transformation of Play report in 2017, children were moving indoors and becoming more sedentary. The opportunities for risk-competence is diminishing.

“It was there before Covid but it is increasing.”

She said children learn from being in a “cohort” including an age mix and that not all parents were able to provide the environment needed for play.

Lady Hunter Blair added: “I think a lot of learning has happened not just from the pandemic but generally.”

She criticised the media for demanding “the right to go to the pub” and said a child’s right to play was enshrined in law.

Lady Hunter Blair said: “Play is a serious business. It is lovely and quite delightful to see children play. During Covid, children lost two pillars of learning – they lost access to their environment, and they lost access to other children.

“Children are naturally curious, the whole purpose of play is about fostering curiosity, trying to encourage it, it is how they make sense of the world around them. It is so important that children are brought together in settings when they are young.

“We have a skilled workforce and most parents do not have that skillset. It is very different to any home environment.”

She read a quote from a child, which said: “Play gives you a sense of freedom when you have none”, and said she had never heard a child speak about freedom before.

Lorna Kettles, policy and engagement manager at Early Years Scotland, later told the inquiry that toddlers were not taught boundaries due to parents working from home during lockdown, while opportunities for children to learn social skills were missed, along with disclosures of abuse.

Ms Kettles said: “Disclosures of domestic abuse were missed. Parents were working from home with children under the age of three and were not able to say ‘no’.

“Children play beside each other – that’s how they learn to share. That opportunity didn’t present itself. There were babies who had never seen another baby.

“I use the word trauma to describe Covid because I think it’s relevant.

“I think the children who went through that are okay and settled in school. I also think that if we did have to go through something similar, that the guidance documents are just made simpler.

“At the heart of all this is the children and ensuring they have the best start in life. Making sure staff have time to do what they need to and that play is really important and recognised.”

The inquiry, in front of Lord Brailsford, continues in Edinburgh.