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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 info@playlink.org.uk.
Balmaha Play Landscape was completed in May 2004. The Free Play Network would like to thank Sue Gutteridge of Stirling Council for providing information and photos.
The main impetus for the design of the play area at Balmaha is that of the connection between land and water and the way that people through history have lived in the local environment.
The central area represents a beach as the focus where water and land meet, where boats are hewn from mature trees and launched to fish the plentiful waters. The stilted structure echoes the ancient crannogs, which were built out into the water as living spaces where families, livestock and belongings could be easily defended. At low water, remains of ancient crannogs can still be seen on Loch Lomond today.
The crucial relationship between people and plants provides a fascinating history as well as one of the greatest challenges for our future. Throughout history people have depended on common areas of wild habitat to search out herbs, plants and trees used for food, structures, products and medicines, and more recently the oak coppice of this area was used to fuel nearby iron smelting and bark for tanning leather which then became the drive belts of many factories of the industrial revolution.
Balmaha sits in some of the most naturally beautiful and biodiverse areas of our country yet children are often separated from it. The 'play area' is designed therefore to be an integral part of the landscape with trees, plants, boulders and pathways giving opportunity for children to experience and care for their natural environment.
There is a deliberate avoidance of standard, prescriptive play park equipment in favour of mounds, dips, copses, wetland, and special places as a move to provide opportunities for children to operate in a more authentic "natural" environment. The use of natural materials and undulating surfaces aims to provide a stimulating landscape, where children can experience the irregularity of life, and develop the real skills and abilities to assess risk.
Whether lazing the day away in the shady hammock, popping in and out of the "foxholes" or climbing aboard the wooden canoes the design of the area aims to create a play landscape that is a context for imaginative play and a space that adults will enjoy sharing with their children.
This project was initiated by the local community through the Buchanan Community Partnership who, supported by the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Community Futures Programme produced a local action plan that prioritised the creation of a local play area. Since play areas emerged as a priority in almost all the local action plans for the 24 National Park communities, a National Park 'Play in the Park' group was formed to develop a play space strategy and action plan for the whole area. Part of the evolving strategy is to encourage some initial pilot projects, of which Balmaha Play Lanscape is the first.
The successful implementation of this project has been the result of partnership working between The Buchanan Community Partnership, the National Park, and Stirling Council. Funding was raised from a number of sources, including:
Stirling Council.
Landfill Tax Trust.
Leader Plus.
Scottish National Heritage
Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.
Stirling Council Local Community Development Fund.
The total cost of the Play Landscape was £45,000.
The main designers for the project were Judi Legg, Play Space Designer, and Mike Hyatt, Landscape Architect. The construction team included sculptor and community artist Kevin Blackwell, who designed and made the dugout canoes, Jude Richardson, environmental artist, who designed and planted the willow maze, and Martin Croft and Ronnie Sinclair, trainee stonemasons who built the turfed stone wall. The main contractor was Landscape Solutions (Scotland) Limited.
The Play landscape is inspected and maintained by Stirling Council Children's Services (Play Services).
The DfES has published consultation documents on its proposals for formally approving a range of provision not currently regulated by Ofsted. This includes provision for over 7s and regular supervised activities for children at weekends (which are not deemed by Ofsted to be care). The consultation document says 'Given that these are areas of childcare that have never been subject to regulation before, we want to keep bureaucracy to a minimum whilst introducing, for the first time, a measure of protection for children.
For Free Play Network members wanting to participate in this consultation, the documents can be found at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations and click on 'Extending Protection and Broadening Support'. The consultation closes on 16 August.
PLAYLINK has written to the Home Office concerning a Private Members Bill introduced in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Julian Brazier, entitled the Promotion of Volunteering Bill. The Bill seeks to promote volunteering by offering protection against claims of negligence by the mechanism of a voluntary 'Statement of Inherent Risk' which is signed by the parent and/or the child participating in projects/activities seen as inherently risky.
PLAYLINK is concerned that the proposed Statement of Inherent Risk could be regarded as a substitute for a proper policy framework with risk assessment and management processes and that play providers will feel constrained to adopt the Statement of Inherent Risk approach, even though it is intended as a voluntary measure. PLAYLINK would prefer an approach which relies on the dissemination and development of good practice in the creation and management of play settings, including the assessment and management of risk, and in the management of volunteers. PLAYLINK's comments on the Bill are available at: http://www.playlink.org.uk/policy/brazier.htm.
The text of the Brazier Bill (including amendments to date) can be read at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/
pa/cm200304/cmbills/113/2004113.htm and the first full debate on the Bill
(including the Government's initial response given by Home Office Minister Fiona
Mactaggart) can be seen at:
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/ pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/cm040305/debindx/40305-x.htm.
The Brazier Bill must return to the Commons for further debate later this year.
Play Wales is currently undertaking a review of the Playwork Values and Assumptions - the principles that underpin playwork and playwork training. All the major organisations that have an interest in playwork have agreed to contribute to the review process.
Phase Two of the consultation is now underway. Play Wales has posted the text of the "Phase Two Playwork Principles - first revision" on its website and is inviting all playworkers throughout the UK to contribute their views in this second round of consultations. The deadline for submissions to Phase Two is 10 September 2004.
You can read the revised Playwork Principles and submit your comments at the
Play Wales website at: http://www.playwales.org.uk/
values/index.php?lang=english.
The Big Lottery Fund (replacing the New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund) is currently consulting on how it should operate. The consultation runs until 30 September and includes both written responses and local events.
The Children's Play Council will be putting in a written response, but it is crucial that as many individual organisations as possible respond to put the case for play and for longer-term funding.
To access the consultation documents on-line see: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/consultation. For printed copies ring 08454 102030 There are separate documents for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. For further information contact Issy Cole-Hamilton at the Children's Play Council.
From Rachel Murray, Southwark Play Network (part of SCCF/SCFA). The following request has also been posted on the UK Playworkers' email list, but Rachel would welcome comments from other networks including the Free Play Network.
At the Spirit of Adventure Play Conference hosted by Play Wales one of the final debates was "Do we need a UK wide lobbying committee for play?"
I have been tasked by the group debating this issue to post our discussion and ask for feedback.
So here are the questions and issues raised.
These were the views put forward at the conference are they right? Do we need another body to coordinate information and lobby for play? Can we use someone who already exists? Have you got an opinion?
If you have an opinion on this, please contact: Rachel Murray, Play Development Officer, Southwark Play Network (part of SCCF/SCFA), 32-36 Rye Lane, LONDON SE15 5BS; tel: 020 7639 9807; fax: 020 7639 2493; email: Rachel@SCCFORUM.ORG.
As this edition of Free Play Network News goes to print, the House of Lords has voted on a compromise amendment to the Children's Bill to allow parents to continue to smack their children provided they do not cause actual bodily harm to the child. Peers voted against a proposal to ban smacking following advice from the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith that a complete ban would have the effect of "criminalising parents".
Children's groups have opposed the continuation of smacking. Following the vote a spokesperson for the NSPCC said the "half-hearted reform ... sends out a dangerous and misleading message that violence towards children is safe and acceptable". Tony Samphier, for the Children Are Unbeatable alliance, described it as "shameful, unjust and irresponsible".
The Children's Bill is expected to be debated further in the Lords on 15 July and will go back to the Commons before 23 July when Parliament breaks up for the summer holidays. Labour MP David Hincliffe is expected to push in the House of Commons for a complete ban on smacking.
Children Are Unbeatable are asking supporters of a ban to write to their Members of Parliament now. Further details can be found at: http://www.childrenareunbeatable.org.uk/.
The Government has accepted an amendment to the Children's Bill from Lord Pendry to include 'recreation' as part of the outcomes for children. The amendments tabled by Lord Pendry, "seek to recognise that the enjoyment of freely chosen free-time activities - recreation - are essential to a child's healthy development and well-being... A vital part of that includes safeguarding opportunities for children's play in the widest possible sense: staffed and unstaffed play provision, unstructured play as well as more structured activities; and opportunities for children to play independently, to explore and find adventure in their local environments."
According to Lord Pendry, "Successive governments have recognised sport and the arts as essential aspects of recreation for children, with accompanying programmes and strategies to deliver them. But no such recognition has hitherto existed for play. In Committee we heard from noble Lords on all sides about the importance of play for play's sake. Yet the importance of play to children has not always been evident in government thinking and guidance. In my view this is a serious oversight, and the result is that local play provision is often a low priority and is vulnerable to cuts in funding... play is far too important an issue in the development of happy and healthy children to suffer such neglect."
Speaking for the government, Baroness Andrews stated, "We accept these amendments, which will cover England and Wales. We are completely at one in the importance that we attach to play as a developmental aspect of children's lives in terms of learning and enjoyment. It is extremely important that there are opportunities for informal as well as formal play... We recognise that recreation embraces play. That captures well-being and the important element of enjoyment that might otherwise be missing. Play will be a major element of recreation. We hope to ensure that that is understood."
Full text of the debate is available at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/
ldhansrd/pdvn/lds04/text/40617-31.htm.
From Issy Cole-Hamilton, Children's Play Council
As part of the Children's Play Council's policy and research contract with the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) I have been asked to look at possibilities for improving the long-term sustainability of play provision for school-aged children and young people. We hope to be able to produce some good information and guidance for sustaining and developing play provision at local level and that this might be published with cross-government support.
To gather information I am keen to look at examples of:
a) Local authorities where overall provision for play for school aged children and young people has been sustained or improved over the past 5 to 7 years.
b) Other types of play service providing for school aged children and young people which has been sustained or improved over the past 5 to 7 years. (eg by play associations, other voluntary sector organisations, EYDCPs etc)
c) Individual play settings which have been sustained or developed over the past 5 to 7 years.
d) Play provision developed with relatively secure funding in the past 3 to 5 years and which is likely to continue for at last the next 3 to 5 years.
e) Examples of where play provision has decreased or closed in the last three to 5 years and not been replaced.
If you are involved with, or know of, any examples I might use please let me know the:
i. name and location of example
ii. type of example you are talking about (see a-e above)
iii. contact name, phone number and/or email address.
If you'd like more information or if you have any thoughts or ideas about this project please email Issy at: icole-hamilton@ncb.org.uk.
'Children need and want to take risks when they play' is the message on a striking poster promoting the position statement from the Play Safety Forum, 'Managing Risk in Play Provision'. Copies of the poster are available at £4 each, or £2.50 each for any order for more than one. Contact the Children's Play Council on 020 7843 6016 or cpc@ncb.org.uk or visit their website a http://www.ncb.org.uk/cpc.
© 2004 PLAYLINK.