What kind of world do we want our children to grow up in? It’s a daunting question, and one asked repeatedly time and time again in our society – by politicians, health specialists and media, and one, as I’ve certainly found as a new mum, parents ask themselves on a daily basis.
Last week saw the Duchess of Cambridge launch an exciting new insight initiative called “Five Big Questions”, which is a UK-wide survey used to ‘spark a national conversation’ to help drive lasting change for future generations. It is ground-breaking in its scale, launched nationwide, but also in its aim to put the heart of opinion and change at the hands of those that it impacts most – parents, carers, and our wider nation.
As a first-time parent to an increasingly curious 18-month old, I find myself feeling challenged by the world around me on a daily basis and how it not only shapes my experience as a parent, but what possible impact it may have on my son’s upbringing. From the growing exposure to media and screens, to the realities of raising a child outside of the ‘traditional village’ model and thus being supported by the childcare system, raising a child in today’s modern society feels worlds apart from what even I knew when I was a child myself. This insight initiative, and the #5BigQuestions survey, is centred around asking opinion on what we, the general public, believe are key influences in child development as the world we know it now – understanding that the make-up of families and our home environment, or our concerns in the world around us, has vastly changed and choices we make today can have a big impact on future generations to come. Here at Magpie our passion is meaningful marketing, being huge advocates for insight and ensuring the ‘every day’ voice is heard in all of our campaigns, so it is so refreshing and encouraging to see such an approach being taken on such a big scale.
Speaking on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast to support the launch of the survey, the Duchess also spoke candidly about her own experiences as a mum and how passionate she was about children spending time outside for physical and mental wellbeing.
Magpie has been passionately supporting campaigns which champion the life-changing impact and profound benefits of connecting children with the outdoors. Most recently we are leading the campaign for the Join Us: Move. Play. programme led by Active Bradford and funded by Sport England. This programme aims to help children and families in North Bradford to be more active to improve health, happiness and learning. We are also proud to have provided campaign support on the Learning Away Brilliant Residentials campaign and we continue to provide support to the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom with their digital marketing.
We can’t wait to see the outcomes of the survey and more importantly to see how this can shape future initiatives to improve the wellbeing of the younger generation moving forward.
To have your say you can complete the #5BigQuestions survey here
Written by Helena (Head of Planning)
