|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free Play Network NewsIssue No. 3, November 2003Contents
Free Play Network News is edited by Nicola Butler, Free Play Network Manager. We welcome contributions and comments from readers, so if you would like to suggest issues to cover or have comments on the articles included please let us know by emailing nbutler at equality.uk.com. Every Child MattersBy Sandra Melville, PLAYLINK Director PLAYLINK's draft response to the Government Green Paper, Every Child Matters, has been posted to our website to prompt your own response. The deadline for responding to the consultation on the green paper is 1 December. It is helpful that the Government's position has moved away from a narrow interpretation of protection for children at risk to a more holistic approach to universal services for children. So while the green paper isn't about play, it does make proposals which should include play and playworkers. However, it doesn't include these points at the moment. The green paper and consultation documents are downloadable from the DfES website at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/everychildmatters. It is extremely important that we take up take this opportunity to make the case for play. Professionals who will be responding from other sectors such as education, health and social welfare are highly unlikely to do so, although some will be supportive of points made by the play sector. PLAYLINK believes that including play in the Government's plans will promote the Government's aims for children and we have made suggestions about how this could work. Feel free to use the draft in whatever way helps you. It is not necessary to respond to every question - Q29 asks for 'further comments' and could be used to state the simple case for play to be included. What is needed is a massive write in from those concerned with children and play. Please also feel free to comment to us on what PLAYLINK is proposing to say. We are keen to put the strongest possible argument but also to be practical. Making space for play in the countrysideBy Chris Snell, Free Play Network Officer Space to play in rural villages is often very difficult to find. Contrary to the Arcadian view of country childhoods past, today's fields are places of industrial production and children are often as welcome and as safe there as in a factory. Parish councils and village playing fields associations often struggle to provide what little they can.
A group of villages around Little Bytham in Southern Lincolnshire have developed their own solution. Funded initially by a Millennium Commission grant they have bought and transformed a six acre piece of woodland into an environmental play area. The Spinney is a project in progress; local volunteers are responsible for all the maintenance of the site and have cleared some of the scrub to open it up. It now has a car park and picnic area and a wheelchair negotiable track through the wood. "We have many more plans for the site," says Patrick Candler, chair of the local primary school board of governors, which administers the project. "We are going to put some play equipment into the wood, like stepping logs and a contour slide, but we want to scatter it about and not create a single play area. That way we will encourage children to explore the wood and interact more with the natural environment. We are also using play equipment in natural materials that will enhance the feel of the place." "The wood is teeming with wildlife; we have badgers, squirrels and quite a few deer. We were concerned that building the track might scare off the deer, but there is some evidence now of them running around it like a racetrack." The School is already using the wood as an outdoor classroom and there is a natural amphitheatre that could develop into a performance space some time in the future. The Spinney aims to serve the six villages that comprise the catchment of the primary school, none of which have any other play area. Because of its location, some distance outside the village along a main road, the Spinney is difficult for children to access on their own. Most children come after school or at weekend with their family, a compromise situation Patrick admits, but one which provides a much needed play opportunity for those that at present have none. The Free Play Network would like to hear from other play providers with experience of developing play opportunities in a rural setting. What can be done to improve children's access to quality play opportunities in rural areas? If you have knowledge or experience of interesting play projects in the countryside, please let us know by emailing the Free Play Network at info@playlink.org.uk.Fire WorksColleagues from Hull, having recently attended a workshop by Mike Wragg on fire sculptures, wanted to involve the local fire service in a fire sculpture project. The fire officers involved were, shall we say, less than enthusiastic. The fire service spends a lot of effort discouraging children from playing with fire and this project was doing just the opposite. We know of course that allowing children to play with fire in a controlled way encourages responsible use of fire and reduces the likelihood of clandestine fires getting out of control. The Free Play Network would be interested in anyone who has had a more positive response from their Fire Service, or has practical examples of using fire with children. Play in ParliamentBy Nicola Butler, Free Play Network Manager The first parliamentary debate dedicated to the subject of Children's Play took place in Westminster Hall on 4 November. Introducing the adjournment debate*, Paddy Tipping MP (Labour, Sherwood), said that he hoped it would "raise the profile of play and contribute towards a national strategy for children's play". Tipping said that although he generally welcomed the Green Paper, Every Child Matters, it referred "only in passing to children's play" and that he hoped the debate would contribute to "a firmer children's Green Paper and a set of policies that recognise children's play." He identified the problems faced by voluntary groups looking for funding and called for funding for children's play to be included in mainstream funding, not just lottery money. Tipping said he wanted to "continue to work with people within and without Parliament to build on important progress - the Dobson report, SkillsActive and the Green paper - to create a framework for children's play." Hilton Dawson MP (Labour, Lancaster and Wyre) described how play opportunities for children in the area in which he grew up had diminished during the past 25 years. Dawson said that a wider range of resources needed to be available to young people, including space to meet and to "do their own thing." He called for play to be given the "prominence that it deserves and requires." Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Dr Jenny Tonge MP questioned whether a strategy for play might lead to setting "targets for play". She said this would be the "very opposite of what play means... Play means doing something that you like doing - or doing nothing". Tonge said that successive governments had "not actually thought out the consequences of particular policies", highlighting the prescriptive nature of the national curriculum and standard assessment tests for seven-year-olds. She said that people "must remember that children have to learn by taking little risks... They need to know that there are safe and unsafe things to do." Malcolm Moss MP (Conservative Shadow Minister for Home, Constitutional and Legal Affairs) argued that there are currently problems with "the notion and practice of play" in this country as "playgrounds... are in decline, often because councils no longer wish to maintain them because of the pressures on their revenue account, or perhaps because they no longer want to face up to the increasing claims for injury as our society becomes more litigious." On the question of risk and play, Moss said that "if we attempt to keep children in an ultra-safe environment, we run the risk of losing a key element of constructive play - a sense of adventure." Moss called for any play strategy to be "inclusive and to cross Departments", to be led by a specific department, and "to be more co-ordinated, both nationally and locally." Responding for the Government, Minister for the Arts Estelle Morris MP welcomed the cross party consensus on the importance of play and described the contribution that the Government has made through many funding streams, to play initiatives. However, she accepted that, "There must be more resources. Despite all the money that has been put in, nobody can say that play is now adequately funded." She offered to comment before Christmas (when the Government responds to the Dobson report on Lottery Funding for Children's Play) on the fact that "funding streams come from so many different Government Departments" and what can be done to achieve a "cohesive provision of play at ground-floor level, while still getting those funding pots." Morris also expressed reservations about a national play strategy, saying that "because of the way that Governments do things, it could end up being prescriptive and full of targets." Contact your MPYou can help keep play on the parliamentary agenda by writing to your Member of Parliament. Ask your MP to raise the following issues with the relevant Ministers:
You can find out the name of your local MP on the Parliament website at http://www.parliament.uk and write to them c/o House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA or you can send your MP a fax by going to http://www.faxyourmp.com. * Full text of the debate is available at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/ National Play StrategyBy Sandra Melville, PLAYLINK Director The Children's Play Policy Forum (CPPF) met recently in a seminar, with invited guests representing a range of interests in play, to consider what a play strategy for England might look like. The Government's response to the Dobson Report following the Play Review (on Lottery Funding for Children's Play, see http://www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/policy/ for further details) is now expected before Christmas and it is hoped their response to the Making the Case for Play report by the Children's Play Council will be published at about the same time. The Minister responsible, Estelle Morris (Minister for the Arts), has indicated that she is sympathetic to the idea of a national strategy, provided it is not rigid. It will be necessary to move quickly both to respond to this opening from the Minister and to exploit the opportunities in the next spending review and in the party manifestos being prepared for the next general election. Those at the seminar were clear that a strategy must be explicitly founded on the values and principles that have been developed by the sector and must set out a broad vision for all children but that it would also need to contain very specific deliverables and be costed. The next stage for CPPF is, in the coming month or two, to turn the seminar discussion into a draft for consultation with the sector. Discovering DiscoverChris Snell visits the Discover play centre in Stratford.
Discover is a pay on entry centre aimed primarily at the under sevens. The publicity for the centre emphasises the centre's story-building trail, which sounded a little too national curriculum for me, but the reality was much more open with a series of well designed indoor spaces and activities. I particularly liked the press button songs in different languages sung and translated by children and the musical bridge across an imaginary river. There were also a lot of interesting places that were just fun spaces to be in and allowed children to be creative. The whole indoor space had the feel of a rather nice playgroup setting, complete with puppet corner and dressing up box, although with a certain feel that it was really aimed at group visits rather than families. The outdoor space is open to local children at no cost and also had a welcoming feel to it with imaginative planting and some very creatively designed play structures. In a relatively small area children are offered a wide range of play opportunities and they have made imaginative use of sightlines and level changes which can transform a space as you move into it. The structures themselves were designed collaboratively with local children and a designer. In fact the project claims to have consulted around 20,000 children in the overall design process. This may be the reason that the structures are very literal. The children wanted a monster with a slide down its tongue, so that is what they have built - commendable on the consultation process but to have long lasting appeal equipment ought to be able to be interpreted in other ways by the children. Overall a great place to visit if you are under seven. The playworker in me would prefer a little more 'edge' in the experience. There was little opportunity for risk taking in either the indoor or outdoor experiences, but in general good quality design creating a play friendly space. For more information see http://ww.discover.org.uk. PLAYLINK/Portsmouth Conference, 4 March 2004By Sandra Melville, PLAYLINK Director The Government's aim of siting a mix of services on school premises and turning them into a community resource (see Every Child Matters) makes it all the more important that schools should be attractive places for children and their families to visit. The challenge is for them to become centres not only for learning in the formal, educative sense but for play and recreation, providing a wealth of opportunities for enjoyment and personal development for local children and adults. The 2004 national PLAYLINK/Portsmouth conference will challenge received ideas of what constitutes a good environment for learning and explore the common elements of play and learning environments. We will be following the successful, case study-based approach of the Designs on Play conference and work is in progress to identify suitable examples. Same Difference?By Chris Snell, Free Play Network Officer "There is more difference between good and bad practice in both professions than there is between the professions." This was the conclusion at the Yorkshire and Humberside Skillsactive meeting to discuss the development of joint NVQ units between Playwork and Early Years professional groups. Ever on the defensive against the perceived encroachment of "early years" values and professionals into the area of playwork, many of the playwork professionals were visibly taken aback when, during the discussion of the values and assumptions that underpin our work, the early years workers agreed with the playwork assumptions and values. They felt the current emphasis on curricular learning goals was misguided and that both early years work and playwork should be about enabling the child to play. The role of the early years worker should not be about directing children's play but, if need be, monitoring and recording self directed play. It was argued that current best practice in early years work already included this way of working and that the playworkers' perceptions of guided and directed play in an early years setting were examples of misguided interpretation of the underlying values. Given this level of consensus we look forward to developing a joint approach to NVQs in playwork and early years. It will be interesting to see if this consensus has been repeated at other regional meetings across the country. Kidsactive email bulletin on inclusive playKidsactive (now a division of the charity KIDS) offers an email bulletin for anyone interested in inclusive play. The bulletin is bi-monthly and will keep you up to date with policy developments, news, and information on inclusive play - as well as the wider issues of play, childcare and disability. To receive the bulletin you will need to sign up to Kidsactive's 'National Inclusive Play Network'. The NIP Network was launched in early 2003, and is being funded through the 'Playwork Inclusion Project' (PIP) contract with the Sure Start Unit (DfES). The aim of the Network is to assist play and childcare providers in working towards the greater inclusion of disabled children through regular e-bulletins, free regional seminars and the sharing of information and good practice. To sign up to the Network send your email details to: pip@kidsactive.org.uk. Your ViewsThe article on Cambridge City Council's decision to close an adventure playground and a number of traditional playschemes and replace them with a more flexible, mobile service provoked a number of responses. Here are some excerpts. From Dave Wainwright, Islington Council "The closure of the Adventure Playground [in Cambridge] was a big deal at the time... it would be helpful to know the answer to a few other questions... Are there any down sides to the changes? Has anything been lost in the transformation, and if so what? Is the new service providing for the same kind of kids as before? "I haven't visited Cambridge so I don't know what was lost and whether the gains were worth it... we need an independent view from someone who is going to bring play values to their analysis." From Donne James Buck, Children's Play & Safety "I was disturbed and disappointed to read the report of new developments in play in Cambridge...I was involved in some of the early developments of adventure playgrounds in London, Stevenage, Cambridge and Peterborough in the 60s and 70s... [R]eading that the Cambridge playground had been closed as part of city play policy was upsetting. "I don't believe that the play needs of Cambridge children are much different from those communities which have adventure playgrounds, So I wonder where they engage in such activities as building dens, lighting fires, art and craft work and all the myriad of free-play activities indoors and out which properly supervised play facilities enable, not to mention the extensive community development which goes along with voluntary managed playgrounds. I realize that the New Ark [where Donne has been involved for many years] is unusual in the wide variety of facilities on offer, but even the most basic adventure playgrounds have much more to offer than play staff operating in parks, most of which were never intended for this purpose. It seems to me that the Cambridge scheme is designed to serve the needs of the local authority rather than those of the children." Telegraph PollThe Free Play Network are looking into the issue of siting manufactured fixed equipment in adventure playgrounds. Is it a cost effective way of augmenting the provision, a safe alternative to self build, or a perilous slide from the flexibility and creativity of a playground's own design and build structures? We hope to investigate further for the next issue of the newsletter and would like anyone to send us examples of adventure playgrounds that incorporate manufactured equipment good or bad, with a view to picking a few to visit. We will as always be happy to air your views on the subject. If you have a comment on any of the issues raised in Free Play Network News, please contact the Free Play Network at nbutler at equality.uk.com. |
|
