Play Strategy hits second gear

Thursday 14 May 2009

The first year of the Play Strategy's national capital-funding programme for play areas is now complete. Adrian Voce, director of the government's national delivery partner Play England, reviews the progress so far.

The Play Strategy has been described by ministers as "totemic" of The Children's Plan's aim to make England the best place in the world for children to grow up. It is an ambitious 10-year plan to transform children's play opportunities, beginning with a three-year programme, which started last April, to build 3,500 local play areas and 30 staffed adventure playgrounds.

A huge effort by the first wave of local authority play pathfinders and playbuilders over the last year, supported by Play England, part of NCB, saw Children's Secretary Ed Balls announce the first 500 new sites open before Easter, putting the programme firmly on schedule.

Ground-breaking guidance
The new play areas are based on the ground-breaking guidance Design for Play, which was produced by Play England. An early evaluation of the success of this approach - active participation in bespoke designs, with more landscaping and natural materials - is encouraging. The report, by Ipsos Mori, found "parents and children were positive about the recent improvements…they felt they spent longer periods of time on the sites due to the increased variety and appeal. Local authorities reported higher numbers of users following improvements."

The new adventure playgrounds to be built by the pathfinder authorities, which each receive around £2m compared with the £1m for playbuilders, will also follow Play England guidance. This aims to bring the qualities of the traditional adventure playground into the new era for play, leading to 30 "unique spaces, dedicated solely to children's play, where skilled playworkers enable and facilitate the ownership, development and design of that space - physically, socially and culturally - by the children playing there."

There is more to the Play Strategy than new playgrounds. It is central to the government's aim, set out in the statutory guidance to children's trusts, to make communities more child-friendly. This "will require a strategic approach to play across the local area, with the full involvement of children, local communities and the third sector in decision-making" and involving "issues such as town and highways planning and the management and maintenance of public space".

New guidance on Implementing the Play Strategy, shortly to be published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and Play England, aims to assist directors of children's services and their partners to truly make this the best place in the world to grow up.