NCDUK2018 is happening soon! - Sunday May 13th 2018

​You can can run any kind of big or small event you want for the week up to and including the day (as long as it's to do with championing child rights and wellbeing)

​Now in it’s fifth year, National Children's Day UK (NCDUK) is all about the importance of having a healthy childhood and how we need to protect the rights and freedoms of kids in order to ensure that they can all can grow up to be happy, healthy adults. From small family outings, to school-run events, community get-togethers and city–wide celebrations, it's a time when everybody can help raise awareness about the work of great local organisations and projects and the things that they care or are concerned about.

It’s a great opportunity for everyone to get playful, but it’s also a time to get a bit reflective about what makes a good life and whether we are getting our priorities right for children and families.

Until 2013 the UK was one of the few countries in the world not to have a National Children’s Day UK. Young children today are struggling with pressures that were completely unknown to previous generations. The changing nature of family and community life, the rise in technology, the increasing influence of the media, the lack of contact with nature, the pressures of the schooling system and the demands of having to constantly look right, achieve and be subject to the incessant judgment of others, have all steadily eroded the environments and experiences they need in order to flourish.

See some stats on UK child health and wellbeing  

In 2017 the UK fell dramatically in global rankings for child rights (from 11th to 156th). According to the KidsRights Index it now ranks among the bottom 10 global performers in the arena of improving rights of the child, after it achieved the lowest-possible score across all six available indicators. In UNICEF’s Report Card 13 ‘Fairness for Children’, the UK had the largest difference among all the countries studied in the levels of healthy eating (consumption of fruit and vegetables) between children from low and high socio-economic status. This was accompanied by one of the largest gaps in the levels of physical activity. Inequality in education was also flagged up, with the UK being ranked 25th out of the 37 countries – behind Slovenia, Poland and Romania.

​For kids to be happy and healthy, we know that parents need to be happy and healthy (!), so the plan is for the day to increasingly open up discussions about how we can better understand the things that parents need and value, the things that get in the way of family life and the changes that need to happen for everyone to be able to flourish.

With an increasingly large national reach, it provides a powerful platform for people to share their thoughts and ideas with others who feel the same. Small local organisations and projects can achieve national interest and recognition and large projects can help fund and resource smaller ones.

By simply using the hashtag #NCDUK2018 to your own posts, blogs and articles during the week they can then be shared with everyone else

So it’s a time to both play and have your say...

​Become part of a national dialogue about the importance of happy, healthy childhoods