ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how repercussions have spread to outdoor education and outdoor recreation. It examines the changes brought to outdoor education centres and includes some personal reflections from a long experience of working with young people in this field. From the mid-1980s there was a radical shift in the relationship of government towards education. When New Labour came into government in 1997 there was optimism that this would lead to greater opportunities for outdoor learning. As local authorities found it increasingly difficult to give financial support to their outdoor education centres and many of these centres were forced to increase their charges, opportunities arose in the private sector to establish outdoor activity centres. The heyday of outdoor education centres in the UK was from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. This was the period of great educational freedom, with child-centred approaches, opportunities to develop local curricula and independence of teachers from government interference.
