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Policy & Consultations | Playwork in Practice | Adventure Play | Play & Design
Welcome to the second edition of Free Play Network News, the newsletter of the Free Play Network.
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.
By Chris Snell, Free Play Network Officer
A new service in Cambridge is reaching children in their neighbourhoods. Chris Snell finds out how the City Council adapted to provide a more flexible play service.
Cambridge Reccy Rangers run activities in parks across the city all year round. These include mini sports sessions, arts and crafts, games sessions, and drama for various groups of kids from 5 to 14.
The regular sessions are open to children, evenings and weekends throughout the year. They generally have a regular following of kids who turn up for the session, but anyone who turns up can join in. As you might expect different sessions in different parks attract particular groups. One park attracts younger children and has high parental involvement whereas another will attract an older group with no parental involvement. The Reccy Ranger team is expanded during the school holidays to provide more sessions in more places, but is essentially the same service. During the darkest days of winter they occasionally move into local community buildings, but mostly stay out in the parks. All sessions are free, open access and run for less than two hours, meaning they are not subject to OFSTED registration and inspection.
"Children find it much easier to come and join in our sessions," says Liz Mantell of Cambridge City Council, "all they have to do is turn up in the park and watch. If they like it they can join in, if not there is no obligation. With facility based playschemes it is much more of a commitment to walk in the door and that can put some children off coming."
Cambridge City Council reorganised their play service some years ago to develop the Reccy Ranger service. With the success of the pilot scheme the service expanded and now reaches large numbers of children throughout the city. The service is more flexible, less expensive and better able to provide a service to children in their own locality than the previous facility based play provision. In addition many more parents are involved in activities than was previously the case, possibly for the same reasons as the children - it is local and very easy to join in.
The Reccy Rangers report that they very rarely have difficulties with any children, speculating that the very openness of the venue means that the playworkers do not become forced into defending a building and anyone who loses interest can easily walk away or move on. Anecdotally there is some evidence that the schemes reduce damage in parks and playgrounds, but this is not a prime goal for the project and no formal study has been undertaken.
Cambridge now provides a service for many more children than it ever did using facility based play activities - it has more community involvement and wider coverage of neighbourhoods. In order to achieve this it has all but stopped providing traditional playschemes and has closed an adventure playground.
Playschemes are often resource hungry facilities that run the risk of providing for a few children at the expense of the many, whilst adventure playgrounds can get a reputation for being only for the tough kids and so scare away others. Should all authorities follow the lead of Cambridge or is there still a role for 'traditional' play facilities? Ought we to be looking to provide a service for the greatest number of children or are there other considerations? What ought they to be? What is your view? Email Chris Snell at info@playlink.org.uk.
By Sandra Melville, PLAYLINK Director
Consultation on the long awaited green paper opened on 8 September and will close on 1 December. The Government's stated aim is 'to protect children at risk within a framework of universal services which support every child to develop their full potential'. This is not a document about play. But it clearly offers the chance for play providers and service managers to ensure that play is on the agenda within the new frameworks for children's services.
The emphasis is on joined up thinking and practice between professionals delivering services for children and there are proposals for revised local authority frameworks and workforce reform to support this. There is also to be a Children's Commissioner, reporting annually to Parliament, specifically to advocate for children and a new Young People's Fund, with an initial budget of £200m, to focus on out of school activity.
The first step is to make sure that there is a strong response to the consultation from play people. The green paper, associated documents and consultation response forms are downloadable from http://www.dfes.gov.uk/everychildmatters. PLAYLINK will shortly be drafting a response and will post it on http://www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk to assist you in your own responses. Your initial thoughts and comments welcome by email to sandra@playlink.org.uk.
By Bernard Spiegal, Consultant, Policy & Service Development
PLAYLINK is currently working with three local authorities - Bristol City Council, Kingston upon Hull City Council, Southampton City Council and two regeneration areas within the city - to develop play policies and strategies.
The foundations of a positive development process requires, as a precondition, the involvement of a wide range of interests. What has proved so encouraging is the interest in, and commitment to, children's play across specialisms, sectors and interests. Each process has benefited from the active engagement of planners, designers, playworkers, housing officers, Sure Start, Children's Fund and, in regeneration areas in particular, residents.
Common themes have emerged. They include: anxiety about potential parental complaints and the potential for negligence claims; a real sense that today's children are more restricted, have fewer opportunities for free play, than previous generations; adult unease about their relationship with non-family children and young people; the need to reconnect children to their wider communities.
In the area where strategy work is well advanced, key objectives have emerged that focus on children's right to play in shared public space, and the type of actions that are required to create that possibility. The need for designated play provision is acknowledged, but the complexities of connecting children and young people to the wider, informal public realm are challenges that no play policy or strategy should be allowed to ignore. What is both welcome and encouraging, is the growing consensus that supports this view.
If you are interested in developing a play policy for your local authority, please see PLAYLINK Services for further information or contact Bernard Spiegal at info@playlink.org.uk.
By Sandra Melville
In recent years, many adventure playgrounds have experienced difficulties obtaining insurance at an affordable price. PLAYLINK has been involved in discussions with the insurance industry during the last few months. A new joint Statement by the Association of British Insurers and the British Insurance Brokers Association sets out the levels of service policyholders should expect in relation to public and employers' liability cover. This is a positive first result of discussions. It sets the timetable for renewing premiums and, most important, specifies 21 days notice if the insurer does not intend to renew. If an insurer fails to comply, they should provide cover for up to 21 days after the expiry date of the policy. More details are available at http://www.biba.org.uk/mediacentre/medianotes.
By Sandra Melville
1 September was implementation day for the first set of changes to the National Daycare Standards for England, following the Department for Education & Skills/SureStart consultation in the summer and amended Regulations laid before Parliament in August. PLAYLINK was successful in resisting proposals that would have confused, or directly damaged, open access play provision. The changes will therefore not materially affect the situation for these providers. In particular, open access provision will be exempt from new procedures in relation to lost children.
A new version of the Standards document is being published with some tidying up which adds clarity. The version posted on the SureStart website at the time of writing contains critical errors in relation to Annex A exemptions for open access, so we advise waiting for the hard copy, which has been corrected. We will let you know when it is available.
Latest information on the timetable for consultation on the main review of the Standards suggests it will not open until after Christmas. This should not prevent us from beginning to think about how to respond. We have posted Promoting Positive Outcomes on the PLAYLINK website to provoke debate. Promoting Positive Outcomes is a PLAYLINK report written at the end of the Open Access Registration Support project earlier this year. It analyses the early experience of registration for open access and play projects and makes a number of recommendations.
By Sandra Melville
The Government's drive for new housing means that there are lots of new initiatives promoting good design in affordable housing. Some pilots are already complete or nearing completion but how well are they dealing with the needs of children and young people. In the South East, 56 sites have been identified for development by the Housing Partnership in Basildon, Crawley, Hemel Hempstead, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Peterborough, Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City. How are they proposing to involve young people in the planning and design. PLAYLINK would like to hear from Free Play Network members who know of successful examples providing imaginative play opportunities in new or renovated housing estates. Please email: sandra@playlink.org.uk.
The National Daycare Standards provide a flexible framework for regulating a range of provision for children under eight including open access, and other play provision.
Though the Standards apply only in England, the discussion of playwork practice could be useful in the other home countries. The main motivation for publishing Open for Play is to promote provider confidence in, and regulator understanding of, best practice and so improve children's opportunities for play in imaginative, varied and challenging environments which allow them the freedom to choose and explore. Please help us to ensure that everyone in your area who should have a copy knows about it and how to order it.
Open for Play, published in July 2003, was written by PLAYLINK as part of its Open Access Registration Support project, funded by SureStart. To order a copy, download and complete the order form at http://www.playlink.org.uk/pubs/ofp.pdf.
In the last edition of Free Play News, we invited readers to comment on the pros and cons of developing a play policy. Below Katie Snook, Play Development Officer for the London Borough of Croydon responds.
Dear Chris
I am the play development officer for the London Borough of Croydon and I have some comments in response to the bulletin Play Policy or No play Policy- what's your view? in the recent Free Play Network newsletter.
London Borough of Croydon has been producing a play policy over the last 12 months, which underpins the borough-wide play strategy. The play policy sets out Croydon's understanding of the role of play in children's lives and the values and principles, which underpin the play strategy.
Developing the policy and strategy has seen play put on the agenda in Croydon. A play policy has encouraged all agencies that impact on play to be involved, for example Cultural Services, Housing, Planning & Transportation, Social services, Croydon PCT, Education and the voluntary sector. With all partners involved, it ensures everyone takes some responsibility rather than it being placed with one agency.
A play strategy transforms the play policy into action and therefore it is vital that these are developed together.
Adopting a borough-wide play policy and strategy has been the first step in co-ordinating play. The play strategy means there is a set of common values, aims and objectives around which all Council departments and voluntary and private agencies can unite to deliver a consistent and coherent choice of play opportunities.
Katie Snook
If you have a comment on any of the issues raised in Free Play Network News, please contact Chris Snell at info@playlink.org.uk.
© 2003 PLAYLINK.