Doctors demand 30 hours a week holiday activities for all children

NEARLY 300 NHS doctors and healthcare professionals have warned that children have become “collateral damage” in the fight against coronavirus.

In an open letter seen by The Daily

Telegraph, medical experts demand immediate funding for 30 hours a week of summer holiday activities for every child in Britain, accusing the Government of prioritising theme parks, clothes and fast food above education.

The letter, addressed to Robert Halfon MP, chairman of the education select committee, has been signed by more than 260 consultants and paediatricians across the UK, including Sunil Bhopal, chairman of the International Child Health Group, who called for the introduction of “Nightingale schools”, like the pop-up Covid-19 hospitals.

Calling for “childhood to be urgently unlocked”, the letter questions why the Government has not put the same conviction into reopening schools, pointing out that “children are at vastly lower risk of catching the Covid-19 virus than older adults” and “spread the virus less than adults”.

The letter adds: “Our collective study and experience says that children and young people are at huge risk from the effects of Covid-19-related lockdown and social distancing policies. Some call this ‘collateral damage’.

“On top of the immediate crisis in physical and mental health and well-being, and the terrible ... cases of child abuse and neglect that we see in our hospitals daily, we know that the social isolation faced by children, particularly the poorest, will be of grave consequence for not only health but educational attainment, success and prosperity.

“We know that children’s brains are literally forging new connections every single second of every day and that what happens during childhood matters for a lifetime.”

The letter also demands a “cast-iron guarantee” of full-time schooling for all children from the autumn and a review of the impact of dropping social distancing in schools. The Government is due to give guidance on social distancing by the end of the month.