We can’t talk about health & safety and play, specifically the topic of children having independent outdoor adventures, based on international data. We need New Zealand data. But where is it? Not in one simple place, so I had to go digging. I’ve had an adventure of my own – an indoor digital-based adventure to find and crunch the numbers so you don’t have to. That’s not a real adventure though, so now it’s time for me to go outside and play, but before you do the same, and before you tell your kids to go on their own outdoor adventure, you need to read this.

Benefit-risk assessment (BRA) is the practice of including the benefits of an activity (whether it's for a product, facility/infrastructure, or activity delivery) as part of the health and safety (H&S) / risk management (RM) documentation and decision-making process. This is crucial for the play, active recreation, and sport sector in New Zealand.

In 2015 I wrote an article talking about my thoughts on the looming health and safety reforms from a parkour perspective. Besides cringing at reading old writing (like listening to your own voice?), my opinions have only been reinforced by experiences in the world of parkour, play, and parenting. I was given the prompt to write this topic again after reading an article series on ‘overprotective parenting’ that pulls together themes relating to the myths and realities of childhood risks and health and safety.