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Ripples in the pool

When it comes to successful play policy, does divergence or consensus pose the bigger threat? Bernard Spiegal considers the options

By Bernard Spiegal

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Children, if asked, might legitimately ask what on earth adults are talking about when they speak about play. Scratch a few adults - say, for example, a Councillor, a parent, an out of school provider, a headteacher, a parks manager, a health and safety officer - and you could easily find a significant divergence of view or, perhaps more worrying, a baseline consensus.

Divergence of view about fundamentals - what do we mean when we speak of play? - cannot be the foundation of consistent practice. That much is obvious. But the obverse, an unexamined consensus, is a particular worry since it too often counters the possibility of creating the sort of play opportunities that children want and need. Rather, public funds and parent's money is directed towards creating anxiety-induced restrictive play opportunities for children in environments that are frankly woeful.

How is this to change? Writing fine words in play policies may be necessary, but is not alone sufficient to challenge and change a restrictive consensus about what constitutes a quality play opportunity. A process comprising discussion, the acknowledgement of difficulties and the resolution of conceptual muddles is the essential underpinning of any policy, in this case a play policy, along with an understanding that ideas about play, and therefore about children, are located within a complex political, cultural and social context that needs to be understood if key questions are to be addressed.

Some of the barriers preventing the creation of quality play opportunities have little to do with play as such. And therefore the mere recital of the virtues of play is not alone sufficient to overcome those barriers. Those barriers include: concerns about potential exposure to negligence claims; anxiety about potential parental complaints; lack of agreement about what constitutes a serious injury; residents' objection to children 'hanging around'; unhelpful notions about consultation.

PLAYLINK has helped twelve local authorities to develop play policies, all based on the type of process described above. The aim is to:

• establish a common understanding of play across Council, the not for profit sector and other sectors as appropriate
  
  
• examine issues that have an impact on children's experience of play; for example, attitudes to, and understanding of, risk; play environments; consultation
  
  
• establish objectives for play provision
  
  
• establish quality play environment criteria
  
  
• link play and play provision to Council corporate priorities, and other strategies as appropriate.

Has any of this work made a difference to children? In some areas there is good evidence that PLAYLINK's approach has helped to create the context, and initiated a momentum, that generates some first class work. In one or two other examples, PLAYLINK has been disappointed by the results. What factors cause the difference in outcome? It's premature to offer definitive answer here, but part of the answer appears to have something to do with that intangible quality: acting in good faith. Where the play policy and strategy development process is mainly motivated by the desire to 'tick a box', for example, by meeting the Best Value Performance Indicator PI115 in the Audit Commission Quality of Life category, then commitment can be wafer thin and momentum is either not generated in the first place or not maintained. Where action is taken in good faith by key actors, then the small stone they throw into the pool helps to create the ripples we need.

Bernard Spiegal is Principal of PLAYLINK. Further information on play policy and strategy development is available at the PLAYLINK website. This article was originally published in Play Words and Leisure Manager magazine.