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'Every Child Matters' - PLAYLINK Response

The final version of PLAYLINK's response to the Government's Green Paper, Every Child Matters, is posted below.

The consultation on this green paper closed on 1 December 2003, but the green paper is still available to view at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/everychildmatters.

PLAYLINK's Response to 'Every Child Matters'

PLAYLINK has limited its response to areas where it has expertise. Please see our response to Q29.

Question 3. How can we encourage clusters of schools to work together around extended schools?

We welcome proposals for the extended use of schools as hubs for the delivery of a variety of services. Schools are a grossly underused resource in many communities and basing services on or around school sites will reinforce a holistic and universal approach. However children, and their families, are unlikely readily to accept the school as a place they wish to be voluntarily, and as a site for lifelong learning and community recreation, unless the environment is seen as child/people friendly.

Attitudes to, and outcomes from, schools can be transformed by changes to their physical environment and to the way in which they engage with children and parents. Work done, for example by PLAYLINK in developing whole school play policies and by Learning through Landscapes in redesigning the physical environment of school playgrounds, shows not only that there are benefits during the school day but that such transformations have the potential to enhance the quality of childcare provided on school sites and to increase the attractiveness of the school as a community resource.

We propose that every school which is to have 'full service' status should go through a similar transforming process in its culture and physical environment.

In our experience, it was very difficult for schools to identify time, or even a space within the school, for the different elements in the school community to come together to talk about their aims for their children in relation to playtime or the playground. We understood that, generally, it was the first time the whole school communities had considered a policy question together. (See 'Play at School' 1999 by PLAYLINK).

If there is to be the culture change in schools which we see as fundamental to achieving the Government's objectives, then opportunities must be provided for teachers, lunchtime supervisors, parents, governors and acilliary staff in each school to come together and take ownership of proposals for change. We see this as a necessary prior step to schools working together in clusters.

Equally, we are concerned that the transformation and wider use of schools to deliver a range of services will be undermined if potential conflicts of values or professional ethos, or different 'versions' of the child implied in different professional/service goals, are not explicitly addressed and negotiated from the start. Government should recognise that time and resources will be needed to allow these critical processes to take place.

Question 6. How can local authorities, working with the voluntary, community and private sectors, develop a range of specialist parenting support services?

Permanent, neighbourhood play provision which is staffed by skilled playworkers is often a natural source of support for parents, both in helping them to understand the developmental value of children's free play and how to provide for it, and in signposting them to specialist services which could help with particular problems they are experiencing with their children. Several of the practice examples quoted in the PLAYLINK publication 'Open for Play' (2003) show how this is currently done by adventure playgrounds.

Playworkers from this type of provision, or those with the relevant experience from local play associations, should be included in multi agency groups and processes concerned with developing the co-ordinated approach to children's services locally.

Question 9. What more could be done to improve services for children and families of offenders?

The play facility established at Wakefield Prison has had a very positive impact on the experience of children visiting their fathers. There are other successful examples where skilled playwork has been able to assist prisoners' children to deal with what is a very stressful situation, often involving long journeys as well as the emotional and physical strain of the visit itself. Providing for children in this way also helps to reduce the strain associated with the prison visit on the resident parent/carer. Such facilities should be available routinely in prisons.

The establishment of the Wakefield project is documented in an unpublished MA dissertation 'A Playwork Facility for Children Visiting Prison: a case study' by Barbara Tamminem.

Question 11. What should the threshold and triggers be for sharing information about a child?

It should be noted that, because open access play provision is chosen by the child, a playworker in that setting may well be identified as the trusted friend to whom the child will decide to disclose abuse. Such playworkers generally have good quality information abaout the regular users of their provision and are in a position to pick up indications of abuse or of problems like solvent or alcohol misuse, even when not specifically disclosed.

On rare occasions a child using open access provision may refuse to divulge where or with whom they live. If the refusal persists, a playworker may judge in the circumstances that it is a child protection issue and that the appropriate procedures should be implemented.

We propose that for all these reasons senior playworkers/managers from permanent neighbourhood provision should be included in planning and implementing the procedures for sharing sensitive information about children potentially or actually at risk.

Question 14. How can we ensure that no children slip through the system?

We fully endorse the reference by the Children's Play Council to the need for training, policy and procedures for recognising and responding to the abuse of disabled children.

Question 20. Should all authorities and relevant local agencies have a duty to promote the well being of children?

This should include the duty to safeguard and promote children's rights as laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in all apects of their service delivery.

We welcome the focus on the well being of every child which, as the green paper makes clear, is the aim that underpins its holistic approach to children's services and the need for multi-disciplinary practice. PLAYLINK proposes that the service aims and professional ethos of both universal and targeted/rescue services should be expressed in terms of this overarching aim of well being, helping to create a common purpose for service delivery.

The implication of aiming for the well being of every child is that there should be access to a range of free, high quality universal services and opportunities in every locality so as to avoid stigma and ensure inclusion for children from poor and otherwise disadvantaged families. Play services should be seen as fitting squarely within such an approach because of the contribution they make to well being and to a child's sense of belonging to, and enjoyment of, their community and locality.

PLAYLINK's experience of working with local authorities indicates that, even with good will, the necessary culture changes are not easy to achieve and that time and resources are necessary to build understanding and trust between professionals who are not used to working together to common aims. These processes are fundamental to achieving the Government's ambitions for service delivery. We are very concerned that unless resources are specifically identified to fund the necessary processes, their ambitions will be frustrated at the outset.

The recent report 'The man in the caravan and other stories..' by Charles Leadbetter for IDeA identifies public service improvement as 'the most controversial and intractable issue in domestic politics'. Quoted case studies demonstrate how leadership and risk taking by local councils are crucial to achieving transformational results in services.

Question 21. How best can young people be involved in local decision making and should the Government, for example, establish minimum standards for this?

The framework for involving children in decisions over matters that concern them already exists in Article 12 of the UNCRC which has been ratified by the UK Government.

PLAYLINK would be opposed to establishing minimum standards over and above the duty to adhere to Article 12 and to show how this has been done. There are many different ways in which children are consulted and enabled to participate in decision making. Creative ways of doing it are evolving all the time and the means are often responsive to local circumstances. Any minimum standards are likely to be either too limited or too prescriptive. Good practice guidance, including examples of what has worked well, and contacts for practice support, are likely to be more effective in promoting methods which are both useful and attractive to children.

Question 24. What services should be required to form part of Children's Trusts and what are the risks involved in involving more services?

For the variety of reasons given for including play and playworkers in answer to previous questions, PLAYLINK argues strongly that play services must be included within the remit of Children's Trusts.

Play is already an integral part of childcare (it falls under Standard 3 of the National Childcare Standards against which Ofsted inspects). Play also figures within school and health care settings where its role is increasingly understood and being developed. It is important to ensure that those delivering play work to a common set of values and assumptions and that all are directed towards meeting the needs and wishes of children and contributing towards their well being.

The point was well made by Hilton Dawson MP speaking in the Commons adjournment debate on 4 November 2003, 'If every child does matter, we must ensure that play is a central part of every organisations work.'

Question 25. How can inspections be integrated better?

We endorse the comment by the Children's Play Council on the need for a common training module and inspection framework to support the inspectorate in recognising the value, and assessing the quality, of environments that stimulate play. We welcome the first steps that have been taken to provide a play training module for childcare inspectors and are pleased to hear that the training has been well received by Ofsted trainers. It should be developed to include the whole of the Ofsted inspectorate, eventually covering secondary as well as primary school inspectors.

Question 27. Should all those working with children share a common core of skills and knowledge?

We greatly welcome the proposal for a common core of training for those delivering services to children and their families. We see such a core a covering not only child protection issues but also the values that should underpin any face to face work with children.

A better understanding of the professional communalities, and necessary differences, would enhance mutual respect and contributre to smoother working relationships. We believe that playwork skills have much to contribute to this process and should be recognised. At the same time, playwork training has not always included a knowledge and understanding of child development which could enhance work in play settings.

We welcome the present moves through Skillsactive, the Learning and Skills Council for playwork, to bring closer together training for early years and playworkers on the basis of shared values and principles. We believe this could be extended to other sectors and disciplines in the interests of children's well being. In particular, we see it as crucial for teachers and playworkers to develop better mutual understanding and closer relationships. Programmes such as 'The Experimental Playground' being run by Learning through Landscapes show how effective a playwork approach can be in meeting the learning objectives of both primary and secondary schools as well as early years settings.

It is important to recognise that volunteers form a large proportion of the play sector workforce. There are many community volunteers whose skills derive from long experience and whose commitment has sometimes been the significant, or even the only, factor in sustaining play provision for their local children. They should be given access to training in the core skills and knowledge.

However, while we support the argument for quality in the workforce. PLAYLINK would not wish to see a degree of professionalisation through trainiing and qualification that would result in excluding these valuable volunteers. The National Childcare Standards for training and qualification, as curently written, are likely to bear very heavily on this section of the workforce. A more flexible long term approach is needed to the issue of their qualification, one which recognises their status and value and the limitations on their capacity.

Question 28. Should there be a common qualifications structure for all those in key roles working with children? If so which roles should it cover?

Please see our response to question 27.

Question 29. Further comments

1. PLAYLINK is grateful for the opportunity to comment on this green paper. We very much welcome the approach, reflected in the title, 'Every Child Matters', which recognises that the narrower issue of child protection cannot be separated from policies to improve children's lives as a whole and that there is a need for a framwork of universal services which enables every child to develop their full potential. This implies a recognition of the preventative impact of high quality universal services which we very much endorse. We also welcome the indication that, while a great deal of work has already gone into preparation of the green paper, the Government's mind remains open to suggestions in line with its overall aim. Our comments are a response to that indication and are restricted to our area of expertise.

2. PLAYLINK's main interest is in the public provision of free play opportunities for school age children, whether in specific supervised and unsupervised settings or in shared public space. We believe that free play makes an irreplaceable contribution to children's learning and social development, and to their sense of well being and belonging in their own localities. Successive consultations with children and their families, conducted by Government departments and other research and service delivery agencies, reinforce this belief.

(By the term 'free play' we mean play as defined in 'Best Play: what play provision should do for children', as '..freely chosen, intrisically motivated behaviour which actively engages the child'. It is therefore distinguished from play as a directed means for achieving particular learning, therapeutic or other outcomes specified by someone other than the child)

3. PLAYLINK's position on play, shared by the key organisations in the sector, is increasingly understood and supported by both the general public and policy makers, as witness the points made in the adjournment debate on 4 November when Members from all sides mentioned the need for children to have time and space outside the home to use imaginatively in their own way. This was referred to by the Minister, Estelle Morris, as 'dis-organised play'. We agree with the Children's Play Council analysis of the value of play services at all 4 levels of service set out in Chapter 1.

4. We are therefore alarmed to find that play services and the public provision of opportunities for play, which are essential to the achievement of the Government's aim for children's well being, find no place in the green paper. It is all the more worrying since there are several references to children's desire , expressed through consultations, for things to do within their own communities (cf paragraph 2.39).

5. We are also very surprised that, despite the title reference to 'every child', there are some groups of children who are invisible in the green paper. It has very little to say on the subject of race equality in access to services, or on the nature of services that could effectively meet the needs of children from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. We would expect these issues to be reflected in service values and quality standards and in the way in which children are engaged in the making and implementation of decisions that impact on them. We see an inclusive approach as integral to the provision of universal services. Similarly, we regret the relative invisibility in the green paper of disabled children. They should be recognised in the first instance as entitled to full participation as members of their communities rather than as 'cases' for a series of specialised, segregated services. We would have thought it consistent with the Government's policy as set out in the green paper to have explicitly recognised the needs of these generally excluded groups. As a starting point we would like to see a strong statement of presumption that all children are members of our society, with skills and experience to contribute towards shaping the nature of their communities and the services and opportunities to be provided.

6. In general we welcome the Government's proposals in Chapter 5 for improved accountability and integration at all levels of administration. We are pleased to see that new resources will be available but reiterate the point that the processes of change and integration must themselves be adequately resourced as indicated in our answers to several of the questions(cf Q3 and Q20). We understand that it is intended that the Children's Commissioner will be answerable to Parliament and very much welcome this strengthening of independence in the role.

7. We urge the Government to develop a national policy, and a framework for local strategies, for play and to ensure that these are also integrated into the structures proposed in the green paper.

8. We hope these comments are useful and make clear that we could contribute knowledge and experience to help the Government in achieving its ambitions for children which we fully endorse.