Play for wales (issue 40)

for Wales Play news and briefing from the national charity for play Issue 40 Summer 2013

A play-friendly Wales

2 | Play for Wales | Summer 2013

Contents

Thank you

2

Editorial

3-5

News

6-7

An analysis of the Play Sufficiency Assessment duty

13

8-9

Responding to the research

14-15 Workforce development

10-11 Innovative approaches to play sufficiency

Editorial Since the last edition of Play for Wales, in line with the requirement that all Local Authorities assess the sufficiency of play opportunities for children within its area, under section 11(1) of the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010, all local authorities in Wales have submitted Play Sufficiency Assessments (PSAs) to Welsh Government.

Colleagues from around the world have described, the ‘Play Sufficiency Duty’, as it has come to be known, as ‘innovative’ and a ‘bold experiment’.

Whilst the PSAs were being prepared the Wales United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Monitoring Group was preparing its interim report on the extent to which law, policy and practice in Wales has progressed, since the United Nations Committee released their UK Concluding Observations 2008.

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Purple Routes working with Maes y Morfa School National award for Cogan Nursery

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to this magazine – we couldn’t do it without you.

An interview with Ken Worpole

This issue of Play for Wales, as well as previous issues, is available to download at www.playwales.org.uk

Wales – A play friendly place

The interim report highlights that whilst Welsh Government has clearly taken measures to deliver its commitment to children’s play, insufficient resources are committed to monitoring and evaluating the impact of the wider initiatives.

into local authority responses to the PSA. Additionally, funding is being sought for a second phase to evaluate the impact of the duty to secure sufficiency of play opportunities upon commencement of that part of the duty.

There is a history of ineffective accompanying guidance for funding programmes which has often resulted in a misinterpretation in decision-making at local level.

Unfortunately, the lack of clear and concise guidance, and a lack of robust scrutiny at national level, appears to have resulted in assumptions and good intentions made at national policy level not being translated into a reality at local level.

This edition of Play for Wales reports on the analysis of the Play Sufficiency Assessment Duty and includes examples of how local authorities across Wales are responding innovatively and experimentally toward creating favourable conditions for supporting sufficiency of play opportunities.

Most recently the decision to subsume the Cymorth unified funding stream into Families First has resulted in a significant hiatus in funding for play provision across Wales. In most instances the resulting challenges have been resolved, but in a few cases there has been a wholesale reduction in Government funding being used to support play provision.

The research will inform Play Wales’ future work relating to legislation and duties and will help steer the work of our Wales - A Play Friendly Place campaign. It is a campaign to promote and protect the right to play in communities in Wales and that communities can use to establish their own local campaigns for children’s play and be part of a national movement at the same time. www.playwales.org.uk/eng/ playfriendlyplace

With this in mind, Play Wales, in partnership with the University of Gloucestershire, has funded research

Play for Wales is published by Play Wales three times a year.

Contact the Editor at: Play Wales, Baltic House, Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff CF10 5FH Telephone: 029 2048 6050 | Email: info@playwales.org.uk

The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Play Wales. We reserve the right to edit for publication. We do not endorse any of the products or events advertised in or with this publication.

Registered Charity No. 1068926 | ISSN: 1755 9243

Created by Carrick | carrickcreative.co.uk

This publication is printed on paper produced from sustainable forests.

Play for Wales | Summer 2013 | 3

News New information sheets Play Wales has recently published two new information sheets that have been funded by the Welsh Government to support the developments arising from the Play Sufficiency Assessments completed by each local authority in Wales.

Section 11 of the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010 places a duty on local authorities to assess and secure sufficient play opportunities for children in their area.

Play and early years: birth to seven years Written by Janet Moyles this information sheet explores what is play and its importance to and for children’s development in the early years (birth to seven years old). It also explores the importance of adult roles, advocacy and the child’s right to play.

Play and risk Written by Tim Gill this information sheet aims to set out why a balanced, thoughtful approach to managing risks in children’s play is needed. It also aims to give an overview of risk-benefit assessment, which is widely accepted as a suitable approach.

Both information sheets are available to download at: www.playwales.org.uk/eng/informationsheets

Playday 2013 – Playful Places

This year’s Playday will take place on Wednesday 7 August. The Playful Places campaign is calling on everyone to help make sure that the places where children live and hang out are great places to play.

Resources A wide range of resources to support event organisers is available on the Playday website – from promotional postcards and event posters, to event planning guidance.

The Get Organised! guide is also available to download - it is full of useful information to help plan your Playday event. The comprehensive guide has everything you need to know to organise a large-scale public event, and is equally useful if you’re organising a smaller event – from event ideas to funding ideas to getting publicity.

Event registration Whether you’re organising a get together with friends and family, a street party with neighbours, a community event or a citywide Playday extravaganza, you can register your celebration on the Playday website! When you register, you will have the opportunity to publish your event on the website to increase publicity and will receive a free registration pack (subject to availability). www.playday.org.uk

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Are children’s rights a reality in Wales?

Rights Here, Right Now: Are children’s rights a reality in Wales? is a Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group interim report on the extent to which law, policy and practice in Wales has progressed since the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released its UK Concluding Observations 2008 to the UK Government.

Reporting to the UN Committee is currently delayed until 2015; the

Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group believes that it is timely to present a strong collective NGO (nongovernmental organisations) voice on children’s rights issues in the Wales context before reporting to the Committee in two years.

Written by Play Wales Assistant Director, Marianne Mannello, Chapter 7 of the report focuses on play and includes a policy and legislation progress update,

New Professor of Play Studies Perry Else has been awarded the title of Professor of Play Studies by Sheffield Hallam University in recognition of his contribution to the profession of playwork in the UK and internationally over the past fifteen years.

In addition to his publications on play and playwork, management of play services, children’s participation

and play policy, Professor Perry Else is a regular contributor to sector publications and is a member of several groups that support play, including the International Play Association. Perry’s research and teaching interests are the role of the adult in supporting play, the quality of outdoor experiences for supporting play, and the effects on play imposed by genetics and cultural and social influences.

Risk-benefit assessment guide The Play Safety Forum has initiated a four nations project to produce a short guide on implementing risk-benefit assessment in play. The work will be project managed by Play Wales.

Implementation guide more accessible and easily implemented by people involved in the everyday creation, maintenance and inspection of where children play.

Who is it for?

Aim of the guide Written by Professor David Ball, Tim Gill and Bernard Spiegal, with input from the Play Safety Forum and the Health and Safety Executive, the guide will build on Managing Risk in Play Provision: Implementation guide. It will focus on providing practical support and guidance in written form.

The aim is to make the recommendations in Managing Risk in Play Provision:

It is aimed at those involved in frontline risk-management of services and facilities that offer play and leisure opportunities for children, including park and play area managers, school ground managers, playworkers and other staffed play provision, play inspectors, designers, manufacturers and health and safety officers.

The guide will be published in the autumn.

issues of concern and key recommendations for the Welsh Government.

www.savethechildren.org.uk/ where-we-work/united-kingdom/ wales

Torfaen: Participation Standards Kitemark Torfaen Play Service has recently been awarded the ‘National Children and Young People’s Participation Standards Kitemark’.

The award is presented to children and young people service providers who have participation and consultation strongly embedded within daily practice.

The process entailed a group of Young Inspectors assessing the play service in relation to the methods used to distribute and collate information from children and young people as well as evaluating the service as a whole to determine whether it is user led and user centred. The Young Inspectors were all members of the Torfaen Youth Forum who underwent a series of training sessions prior to undertaking their role.

Torfaen’s Play Policy Officer, Andrea Sysum said, ‘The process enabled Torfaen Play Service to assess and reflect on how we communicate and engage with both the children and young people we work with as well as our staff and volunteers. The process also highlighted how the views and opinions of our children and young people are essential for the development of our service’.

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Street closures for play A recent feature on the BBC’s magazine programme, The One Show, reported on the Playing Out project where residential streets are regularly closed to cars for short periods of time to allow children to play freely.

The feature aimed to raise awareness of the project and demonstrate that it’s achievable across the country.

The project that began in Bristol and now extended to other parts of the UK shows that with community support and collaborative working regular street closures can help to normalise street play and contribute to making our communities play-friendly.

As part of the clip childhood expert Tim Gill said: ‘It’s really good for kids to play outside – it’s good for the children, for their parents and it’s good

for the community. We think of the street as a place for cars but actually what we learn from Playing Out is that … we can work out a way of sharing a street so we can get kids out away from screens and having a great time.’

The short clip can be used to canvas support for street closures to support children’s play opportunities as well as contributing to alleviating anxieties and possible challenges locally.

Play Wales is looking forward to the development of similar projects that are currently being piloted in Wales. For a current example in Wrexham see pages 10-11.

To view the clip visit Tim Gill’s blog: http://rethinkingchildhood.com www.playingout.net

Child Research Group receives grant Play Wales has received funding from the Wales Children and Young People Research Network (CYPRN) to support the facilitation of The Play Sufficiency Research Development Group.

The Group will provide a collaborative platform for developing research bids and projects that will explore the interpretation, implementation and impact of the duty to assess and secure sufficient play opportunities for children as part of the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010, Section 11.

The innovative nature of the legislation, the international interest in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and Wales’ approach provide a strong argument for researching it; with benefits for the national and international policy community and academic community alike.

The research group membership comprises:

Dr Owain Jones (University of Gloucestershire – Countryside and Community Research Institute) Dr Simon Hoffman (Swansea University School of Law/ Wales Observatory on Human Rights of Children and Young People) Mike Biddulph (Cardiff University – School of Planning and Geography) Play Wales Professor Marcus Longley (The University of South Wales – Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care)

Wrexham risk management policy In April 2013 Wrexham County Borough Council endorsed a new risk management policy for its play services. The policy aims to establish a coherent, consistent and balanced approach to the management of risk in services and facilities for children and young people across Wrexham and to ensure greater clarity of understanding around this issue.

The policy presents some challenge to the existing risk averse nature of our society which can limit children’s play experiences, therefore better supporting local authority employees in their role of working with, and on behalf, of children and young people.

Developed by a group of playworkers from across Wrexham and Conwy, the policy underpins a framework for risk management that incorporates both routine and dynamic risk-benefit assessments.

It is informed by contemporary theory and practice and based on the approach set out in Managing Risk in Play Provision: Implementation guide.

Social Media

Professor Ronan Lyons (Swansea University – College of Medicine) Stuart Lester (University of Gloucestershire – Play and Playwork)

www.facebook.com/PlayWales

Wendy Russell (University of Gloucestershire – Play and Playwork) www.playwales.org.uk/eng/ researchgroup

twitter.com/PlayWales

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An analysis of the Leopard Skin Wellies, a Top Hat and a Vacuum Cleaner Hose: An analysis of Wales’ Play Sufficiency Assessment duty presents the findings from a small-scale research project exploring how local authorities respond to the introduction of the duty to assess sufficiency of play opportunities for children, the first part of the Play Sufficiency Duty as set out in the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010, Section 11.

It draws on data from 20 local authority Play Sufficiency Assessments (PSAs) and associated documentation, interviews and notes from stakeholder meetings in three local authority case studies, notes from observing regional meetings, interviews with a Welsh Government officer and key officers from national partners (Play Wales and Welsh Local Government Association) and an online survey for key stakeholders involved in the PSA process.

Play Suffi Key themes arising from the analysis 1. In many local authorities, the Duty has strengthened existing partnerships both within the authority and with other key stakeholders, particularly the voluntary sector, although this was not uniform. It has brought together local authority departments who traditionally may have been perceived to have little in common with regards to children’s play, most notably planning and local development, transport and highways, and environment.

2. Some PSAs have developed a range of approaches to consultation with children (and in some cases adults) that extends beyond tokenistic and abstract surveys to reveal that children have a wealth of situated knowledge about their environments and how space, time and attitudes shape their everyday interactions.

The research was carried out by Stuart Lester and Wendy Russell of the University of Gloucestershire and is jointly funded by the University of Gloucestershire and Play Wales.

3. When children’s situated knowledge is given higher profile and combined with professional expertise and other key sources of information, partnerships build ‘collective wisdom’ of the ways in which local environments may enhance or inhibit children’s ability to find time and space for playing.

The title comes from an anecdote told by playworkers that encapsulates all the many things that go to make up a culture of acceptance that means that a child dressed in these items is nothing remarkable and yet says everything about a play-friendly neighbourhood.

4. This growing wisdom and accompanying shared narrative allows for a more coherent and cohesive approach to addressing the PSA Matters than treating them as discrete entities. It provides the foundations for dealing with the messy, multiple

and complex variables that contribute to the production of play friendly environments.

For example, an integrated partnership approach based on the value children attribute to playing in informal spaces close to home can address issues that range across ‘street’ level actions (signs, street closures, playwork interventions, protection of small ‘wasteground’ sites), issues of community engagement (advocacy, community play audits), to broader policy issues (traffic regulations, accessible street closure procedures).

Conclusions The Welsh Government and its partners, Play Wales and the Welsh Local Government Association, are to be heartily congratulated for taking this bold step into what is potentially a new landscape for government understanding about children’s play.

If momentum can be maintained in times of austerity, this can be seen as the beginning of a fruitful journey where governments can appreciate the impact of their actions and work together to create a play-friendly Wales.

The key themes in the analysis highlight the complex ways in which all aspects of children’s lives are interconnected. Play is not a separate phenomenon that happens in designated spaces and at prescribed times but is interwoven into children’s everyday lives and will erupt whenever conditions allow. In order to continue the momentum provided by the PSA statutory requirement, there is a need to develop an

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ficiency awareness of the conditions that support local authorities in this endeavour, and these might include: Maintaining dialogue: The strategic partnerships that have been created or developed need to be fostered in order to continue the conversations that have taken place during the PSA process. Dialogue acknowledges that there will be different understandings, different priorities and different levels of commitment to be navigated; within a shared desire to create a play-friendly Wales. This agonistic dialogue requires strategic leadership and support both at local and national level.

Fostering an on-going community of learning and practice: The work to date has developed collective wisdom about conditions that support or constrain children’s play. This wisdom is assembled not only from factual data but also through anecdote, intuition, memory, observation, experience and dialogue itself. Workforce development is an important element of this, both in terms of playwork training and qualifications and in terms of continuous professional development that fosters a shared understanding across professional and community sectors. Again, this requires strategic leadership at local and national level.

Children’s competence and adult responsibility towards a collective wisdom: Most children have rich and situated knowledge about their environments and adults need to develop more nuanced and authentic approaches that recognise and value this. However,

Assessment duty

adults can never fully know about children’s play, and nor should they. What is more relevant here is to develop wisdom regarding local and national practices that support or inhibit children’s ability to take time and space for playing in and through their environments.

Children have a right to be separable, to have time and space to themselves that is beyond the gaze of adults. At the same time, children are not entirely separate or apart from adults; adults have a presence with children even when they are remote, and these relationships may support or inhibit conditions for play.

Experimentation: Wales is the first country in the world to introduce a Play Sufficiency Duty, so there is no blueprint to follow. The Welsh Government has taken a bold step of recognising that addressing sufficiency of play opportunities requires experimentation, not in the sense of scientific experiments that try to control all governing variables, but through critical examination of current habitual policies and practices and daring to do things differently.

The PSA process has generated a sense of excitement. This needs nurturing through supportive and

collaborative networks, not always amicable and consensual (as in children’s play itself) but with a shared commitment to create more just and democratic environments for children. The process of developing collective wisdom within a community of practice of adults looking to support children’s play should itself reflect some of the characteristics of playfulness: openness to novelty, a sense of curiosity and what might happen, a willingness to ask different kinds of questions – a ‘what if…?’ approach.

An executive summary of the research report is available to download at: www.playwales.org.uk/eng/research Electronic copies of the full report are available upon request: info@ playwales.org.uk | 029 2048 6050

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We have asked members of the Play Sufficiency Research Development Group and a partner institution to share their views about Leopard Skin Wellies, a Top Hat and a Vacuum Cleaner Hose: An analysis of Wales’ Play Sufficiency Assessment duty.

Owain Jones

Marcus Longley

Reader in cultural geography; landscape, place and environment, Countryside & Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire.

Director of the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care and Professor of Applied Health Policy, University of South Wales.

On occasions, legislatures can seem to step out of the on-going tangle of everyday politics to introduce visionary new policy. The Welsh Government’s Play Sufficiency Duty seems to be one such instance of ‘visionary government’.

It needs to be seen alongside the United Nations’ recent General Comment on Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Helen Brocklehurst points out that the UNCRC is now ‘the most ratified human rights treaty in history’. But has that made much impact in changing children’s conditions in areas of conflict, poverty, exploitations, environment and degradation?

It is very welcome that researchers of such experience and sensitivity for children’s play and its multiple realities as Wendy Russell and Stuart Lester had the opportunity to look in detail at how the Duty is being implemented.

Their conclusions show the challenges that local authorities and wider society face in really ‘making a difference’ on the ground in relation to children’s play. However, talk of changes in culture is encouraging as there seems to be an emerging recognition that children’s play opportunities are embedded in, and emergent from, the wider conditions of society.

Wales should be a brilliant country for children – it is the first in the world to look systematically at how children’s play can be facilitated.

This is a major challenge for statutory bodies and the third sector, finding ways to work together, and also understanding the complexity and inter-relatedness of the factors which can liberate or constrain play.

This sensitive and subtle exploration of the realities of Wales’ historic commitment to do just this reveals the nature of the process, and draws many valuable lessons which will be of interest to all those countries which (hopefully) will now follow in Wales’ footsteps. Above all it offers a message of great hope and encouragement – facilitating play is an eminently practical project, if adults approach it in the right way.

Ben Tawil Senior Lecturer at the department of Childhood and Family Studies, ^ Glyndwr University Leopard Skin Wellies is significant in that it provides an opportunity for all those interested in childhood, community, policy and governance and most specifically play, to immerse themselves in what is an insightful and comprehensive review and analysis of the Play Sufficiency Assessment (PSA) process.

The authors work hard to draw together and represent generic themes emerging from the PSA’s.

It is possible to discern to a degree what future orientation policy, strategy and implementation may take over the forthcoming years in respect of securing sufficiency of opportunities for children’s play. However, what the authors do best and what is most useful is the way the analysis represents the temporality, short-lived, interconnected and interdependent, situated and contextualised nature of play and how each of the phenomena affecting play need be considered across different levels of analysis.

Two particular elements of the analysis are most useful to those wishing to contribute to maintaining, securing and extending children’s right to play. Section 2 (Policy processes at national level) provides a detailed overview of policy development and narratives.

This is a very useful section to ‘join the dots’ for those that may be reluctant to see childhood and play as central to Governmental policy. The ‘registers’ (Repair and maintenance, Relatedness, Rights, Re-enchantment) used to frame the analysis are particularly accessible and a useful framework for thinking about and planning for sufficiency of opportunities for play.

For more information about the Play Sufficiency Research Development Group visit: www.playwales.org.uk/eng/ researchgroup

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the We have also asked partnership organisations to share their opinions on the research. The Welsh Government has worked collaboratively with the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and Play Wales in the development of the statutory guidance and toolkit for the Play Sufficiency Assessments. The success of this on-going collaboration was referenced in the research report.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: ‘We are very pleased that this report recognises our commitment to the importance of play. We will continue working closely with Play Wales and the Welsh Local Government Association to ensure we build on our play-friendly polices that bring long term benefits to the children of Wales.

‘As Wales is the first country in the world to legislate for play, there have been no precedents for our work in this area. We believe that consideration of the background and processes involved in developing our strategy will help to inform further developments in Wales and other countries interested in our approach. This has particular significance in relation to the General Comment on the UNCRC Article 31, with the recommendation that all signatory countries should consider legislating for play.’

Keith Towler Children’s Commissioner for Wales said: ‘I meet many children and young people as part of the work I undertake as the Children’s Commissioner for Wales and I am acutely aware of how important play is to them. In a period of financial constraint I am concerned that provision for play may be viewed as an added extra rather than as the right of every child.

The Play Sufficiency Duty is a milestone in the journey from the policy commitment Welsh Government has made to the actual realisation of that right by children.

This research provides us with the first evidence on the way in which policy intent is being translated

Peter Gomer Interim Policy Adviser (Leisure, Culture and Heritage) Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) ‘Excellent, informative, clear, readable, thought provoking and captures my general overview of the whole Play Sufficiency Assessment process.

‘I really do think that the way in which this document is written will greatly assist the way forward. The authors have captured a fine and honest balance between what I see as play enthusiasts, experienced practitioners right through to the slightly cynical.’

into local strategic action on play sufficiency. It is clear that there is still much work to do but that the Play Sufficiency Assessment process is a good point from which to move forward.’

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approaches In the concluding recommendations of Leopard Skin Wellies, a Top Hat and a Vacuum Cleaner Hose: An analysis of Wales’ Play Sufficiency Assessment duty the authors, Stuart Lester and Wendy Russell, suggest four key conditions to support local authorities to maintain the momentum generated by the Play Sufficiency Assessment (PSA) process.

Across Wales local authorities and regional play associations are developing innovative approaches to meet these four recommendations as set out in their Play Sufficiency Assessment Action Plans.

Here are a few examples of the new and exciting developments taking place.

Fostering and ongoing community of learning and practice Design Commission for Wales emphasises the need for local authorities to clearly communicate what they expect from developers of new housing developments.

Through the PSA process planning and design officers in a number of local authorities have articulated their commitment to ensure that the integration of designated open spaces, such as those for playing, be considered at the outset of the design process.

In Swansea, it is recognised that the early involvement of play officers in the design process will help to ensure the creation of healthier and more play-friendly communities. The need to consult with play officers regarding integrated play space design and development has been set out in emerging Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) for new residential development across the whole of Swansea. Once adopted this guidance will supplement local planning policies set out in the existing Unitary Development Plan (UDP) and forthcoming Local Development Plan (LDP).

In Ceredigion, the local planning officer has initiated a meeting between the PSA Lead Officer, RAY Ceredigion and Play Wales to discuss the approach the Local Planning Authority has taken to open spaces within the Local Development Plan. This meeting will also explore how developers can be supported to demonstrate that they have considered the participation of children and young people in new play space design.

Experimentation The North East Wales Community Play Project is a partnership project between Flintshire, Denbighshire and Wrexham that introduces teams of playworkers to targeted communities for a period of between six and 12 months with the aim of improving children’s opportunities for play.

Since January 2013 one of those teams has been working in a Wrexham community that includes one of the county’s larger parks at its centre. The majority of play sessions facilitated outside of schools have taken place in this

park, which is a formally recognised space for play and includes a range of features that could be considered as representing high play value.

However, numbers attending the sessions have been low (between eight and ten) and children have tended to be accompanied by parents who bring them to the site.

Simultaneously, staff from this project were involved in Wrexham’s PSA. As the data generated by the assessment was being analysed the team began discussing how existing provision could be adapted to better address some of the emerging priorities, in particular the need for: safer streets for play; space in close proximity to children’s homes; access to a greater range of spaces; increased parental permission for play, and improved general attitudes towards children.

As a consequence, the playworkers asked parents from four schools in the target community to nominate streets that would be suitable

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to for children’s play. Following site visits a preferred location was identified and playworkers visited every house on the street to raise awareness of the project, advocate for play and address concerns.

The first ‘street play’ session was attended by 24 children; the majority were new to the project and walked alone or with friends to access the provision. Since then attendance has continued to rise with adults also coming outside to see what’s going on and car users moving slowly down the street to accommodate for children’s play.

Torfaen’s PSA Action Plan for 2014 identifies that the local authority will explore future plans to offer local authority insurance to third sector providers. This would go some way to better support community based providers to continue to offer local children play provision without the burden and worry that cumbersome insurance procedures sometimes present.

Children’s competence and adult responsibility towards a collective wisdom One of the objectives over the next three years for Conwy’s PSA Action Plan is to build on the existing

broad consultation information gathered from children about barriers to playing and build a more thorough picture of children’s experiences of playing in individual communities and their own situated knowledge.

The Conwy Play Development team is currently working in the village of Llansannan, which is typical of many of the rural communities in Conwy. The team is running a series of three or four progressive workshops in the school that will be underpinned by an initial ‘Right to Play’ workshop and work to map the community against constrained, promoted and free fields of action.

The aim is to actively engage children in their own local play sufficiency assessment to identify meaningful actions that will have a positive impact on children’s playful experiences in the community.

The work with children will be supported by face-to-face interviews with parents and other adults and playwork observations of spaces within the village where children play in order to develop a detailed picture of the playfulness of the community.

In developing this approach the Conwy Play Development team is also extremely mindful of the words of caution in Leopard Skin Wellies, a Top Hat and a Vacuum Cleaner Hose and responsibilities as playworkers to ensure children have spaces away from the gaze of adults and that excessively analysing some spaces and play behaviours may have a detrimental effect on children’s play experiences.

Upon completion of the work in Llansannan the team aims to target a minimum of three further

communities each year to build a stronger picture of children’s everyday play experiences in their communities to be used as part of the next PSA and in securing sufficiency over the coming years.

Maintaining dialogue Powys has recently launched its Play Pledge: A Charter for Play. Key decision makers and stakeholders were invited to draft a Charter so that organisations have ownership and can show their commitment to children’s play.

It will ensure organisations can easily identify with each other and will help to foster future dialogue and opportunities to share good practice across the county. It will enable organisations to begin to understand how the play needs of children and young people should be considered when planning and delivering services. This will build on the contributions that organisations have made to inform the PSA and help to implement the Action Plan. Children and their families will also be reassured that organisations respect children’s right to play.

In addition, it is hoped that organisations recognise the value of play and support its development by contributing towards resourcing play, in kind and with funding. www.playwales.org.uk/eng/ sufficiency

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Purple Routes working with Maes y Morfa School Purple Routes Project Coordinator, Jo Owen tells us about the project’s play sessions at Maes y Morfa School in Llanelli.

The Purple Routes Play Project is funded through the BIG Lottery Child’s Play programme to deliver community-based play in both Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. The ethos of the project is to encourage community members to support the development of play in the areas in which they live, recognising the child’s right to play, the impact it has on life and the importance of play for everyone.

Purple Routes has been delivering free open access play sessions in 16 communities across Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, where children and young people take an active role in their freely chosen play.

In November 2012, Purple Routes began to offer free lunchtime play sessions to all primary schools across the two counties, to promote the community sessions and the use of resources in school grounds.

All schools fully embraced the play sessions and the use of scrap in the school grounds.

One school immediately saw the benefits of having a team of

playworkers in the school grounds.

Over recent months Maes y Morfa School in Llanelli has been hiring the Purple Routes team to run lunchtime play sessions on a daily basis and Friday afternoon sessions to cover staff ‘PPA’ time.

Headmaster of Maes y Morfa School, Joe Cudd, said: ‘Since Purple Routes there is far less niggling and arguing. The playworkers are engaged and fully committed to promoting a positive play environment on the school grounds. I would commit resources for Purple Routes to come in forever if I could.’

coming to school because Purple Routes is epic. They’re all fun, fair and exciting!’

Purples Routes is eager to continue working with schools throughout the year and beyond. It is hoped that by demonstrating the positive impact play can have during school sessions that children, schools and the sustainability of Purple Routes will all benefit. www.purpleroutes.co.uk

The playwork team takes a van full of play resources on to the school grounds and one boy said, ‘We do den building, circus stuff and make things out of scrap which we love!

It makes us feel happy, excited, full of adrenaline and out of breath … Purple Routes has changed school, everyone is playing and enjoying

National award for Cogan Nursery Cogan Nursery School in the Vale of Glamorgan has been awarded the ‘Outstanding School Team of the Year’ in the annual Pearson Teaching Awards for Wales.

Head teacher Pauline Rowland said: ‘We were all thrilled to have been nominated but to win … we are ecstatic.’

Cogan Nursery School places great emphasis on learning through play both indoors and outdoors and is a Forest School.

Through play, the children have the opportunity to learn about the natural environment, how to handle risks and use their own initiative to solve problems and co-operate with others.

During the IPA 2011 World Conference that Play Wales hosted in Cardiff small groups of delegates visited Cogan Nursery School and were very impressed with the play opportunities on offer for the children. www.cogannursery.co.uk

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Following a keynote presentation at our annual Spirit conference we interviewed author and environmentalist Ken Worpole about children’s attachment to space and the importance of child friendly communities.

The child’s attachment to place is a profound relationship and the effects are felt throughout life.

What do we need to understand about this connection to place?

I think it’s interesting that so many novels about childhood are very much around a sense of place, whether it’s Huckleberry Finn, Richmal Crompton’s William books or Astrid Lindgren’s Pippy Longstocking. Where they grow up and the landscape they grow up in and the places where they play remain with people for the rest of their lives. I find that very interesting even if sometimes as outsiders we might think someone else’s place of growing up is rather dull and boring or poor or poverty stricken or whatever. Nevertheless, all adults have this very strong attachment to the early places, the streets and houses they remember from their childhood.

I think that there’s been a major shift in the 20th century in this relationship as a result of the widespread destruction of the street by the car. There are four times as many cars in Britain as there are children. However, I think the dominance of the car in transport policy and in town planning policy has actually peaked, and may now be retreating. Now I’m fairly optimistic: there’s a move back to reclaiming the neighbourhood and the connections from the suburbs, the town centre and so on for the child, the cyclist and the pedestrian.

I think it’s a very interesting time in town planning and traffic planning where we are re-configuring the neighbourhood and the street to make it much more child friendly.

How can adults help children and young people explore and value the places where they play?

I suspect it’s not going to happen so much now between individual parents or carers and the child, though there’s still a tremendous opportunity in the school, particularly the primary school.

There are still opportunities to do the kind of work Colin Ward developed for the Town and Planning Association in the 1970s, which he then called ‘street work’.

This involved taking children out of the classroom and drawing maps of where they lived, the walk from the home to the school, the things they saw on the way, introducing them to the fire station, understanding who worked in the town; how the phone, electricity and the gas were connected and really understanding that they lived in quite a complicated set of spaces and economic relationships.

Do you think playing helps children in times of social crisis?

I do, very much so. I trained to be a teacher and one of the people we studied then was the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, who wrote a very famous book on the moral development of the child.

He said it was only through play that children learnt the rules of morality, of sharing, listening to other people, taking their turn and understanding concepts such as fair shares. Children who don’t play with other children miss the rough and tumble of ‘we’re going to play this game and this is where we’re going to play it’ and ‘if you are in that circle you can’t be out’ – setting the rules, negotiating the

rules. If children are not involved in that collective communal group activity, they are not going to learn to be social, they are going to stay very much as individuals. They aren’t going to learn the whole basic principles of sharing and developing rules so people can get along together. Play is absolutely about getting along together.

Britain is often referred to as the ‘bad man of Europe’ in terms of the quality of its public realm, also as one of the least child-friendly countries in Europe. Is this a fair critique?

It’s interesting that when the Danish architect and planner Jan Gehl was invited to London by the Mayor some ten years ago to look at street planning, the first thing that struck him was how few children there were on the streets compared with other European cities. I still think that’s true. In fact now in Britain we’ve got a situation where we regard groups of children on streets as a threat. We’ve really got to change our attitudes to that.

Obviously if children are hanging about and there is nothing for them to do possibly sooner or later they will get up to some kind of mischief. The fact is we don’t solve that by saying no children should be out on the streets.

Ken is a former teacher and community activist, and the author of many books on social policy, landscape and architecture, including play policy. He was a member of the UK government Urban Green Spaces Task Force, and an Adviser on public space to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE).

Ken is Emeritus Professor at The Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University. www.worpole.net

14 | Play for Wales | Summer 2013

Good news: P progress 3

The final pieces of the Playwork: Principles into Practice (P3) jigsaw are coming together. SkillsActive has recently been funded to carry out a project under the Sector Priorities Funding Pilot 2 programme (SPFP 2) to undertake the development of the P3 Certificate and Diploma trainer and learner materials at level 3, and to finalise those of the Award.

The SPFP 2 programme is a joint funding programme using European Social Funds matched

by Welsh Government in order to inform recommendations which will ensure that the delivery of post-16 skills provision is more responsive and aligned to the needs of employers.

Play Wales is extremely pleased to announce that having tendered for the work, it has been awarded

the contract. Writing work has already begun and we should see the completion of the Certificate materials ready for pilot by December and the Diploma by September 2014.

The Award has already been successfully piloted and is proving suitably challenging to learners.

Evidence to date is already showing incredible changes in practice for those undertaking the qualification. We plan to pilot materials throughout the project and will be consulting upon their suitability with the sector.

We will also bring together a Welsh Language Advisory Group to support us in making both the translation and development of a Welsh language delivery infrastructure meet the needs of Welsh medium learners.

We are working with the Welsh Government and SkillsActive to explore funding programmes for the delivery of these qualifications in Wales to support the Play Sufficiency agenda. The Play Sufficiency Assessments (PSAs) have confirmed the challenge in terms of delivering playwork qualifications throughout Wales.

We have always known this was the case; the evidence provided through the PSAs will support us to seek funding, and we will be looking to European Social Funding to see what possibilities this offers.

For more information about P3 qualifications at level 2 and 3, please contact workforce@ playwales.org.uk www.playwales.org.uk/eng/p3

Taking a balanced approach to risk seminar In September 2012, the Play Safety Forum (PSF) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published a joint high-level statement to promote a balanced approach to managing risk in children’s play.

The statement, Children’s Play and Leisure: promoting a balanced approach, emphasises that when planning and providing play opportunities, the goal is not to eliminate risk, but to weigh up the risks and the benefits.

In March 2013, Play Wales delivered two regional seminars for local authority health and safety officers to promote and encourage the implementation of the highlevel statement and to consider the application of risk-benefit assessment in children’s play provision.

Play Wales commissioned Bernard Spiegal (PLAYLINK) to deliver the seminars. He is an advisor to the PSF and worked alongside Play Wales and other members of the PSF and the HSE to develop the high-level statement. He is one of the authors of Managing Risk in Play Provision: Implementation guide (2008) – a document endorsed by the HSE that has the principle and practice of risk-benefit assessment threaded throughout.

The seminars explored: •

the intrinsic value in children experiencing environments of uncertainty that provide personal challenge through their play.

•

how health and safety policies can be developed to reflect the principle of and accommodate

the value of children being able to experience risk and challenge.

•

the challenges and opportunities that a positive approach to risk-taking presents to health and safety officers and frontline staff.

Overall, feedback was positive and seminar participants appear to wish to embrace a more balanced approach to risk assessment.

The seminars provided Play Wales with information to identify steps to provide support for local authority officers and organisations that have begun to use or want to start using the risk-benefit assessment approach. Our objective is to contribute to an increase in inhouse confidence and capacity to undertake risk-benefit assessments.

Play for Wales | Summer 2013 | 15

Study: workforce and play sufficiency In March 2013 Play Wales was commissioned to produce a small-scale feasibility study to look at future learning programmes in relation to the Play Sufficiency Duty and make recommendations for ways forward and potential funding strategies to support the development work needed.

Feedback from those involved in completing Play Sufficiency Assessments (PSAs) and drawing up Play Sufficiency Action Plans was collated to inform a report that outlines the key messages and recommendations. The methodology for the feasibility study included an online questionnaire devised to gather feedback from Local Authorities to assess whether there was interest in Continuing Professional Development to support future PSAs. Additionally, the questionnaire investigated the different learning programmes that might be introduced and the level of support that might be needed.

The online questionnaire was disseminated to the Play Sufficiency Assessment Lead Officers in all 22 local authorities and to the All Wales Strategic Play Network. In total 21 people contributed to the questionnaire and 10 people took part in telephone interviews to consider the Play Sufficiency Assessment, in relation to Matter G ‘Securing and developing the play workforce’.

easily available. This would provide support to organisations and local authorities in making communities more child-friendly with more opportunities to play.

The value (and the loss) of Playwork Wales, the National Centre for Playwork Education and Training, in helping to coordinate and provide an infrastructure for play and playwork education and training was mentioned a number of times. With the introduction of the Play Sufficiency Duty, securing ways to disseminate information, support the delivery of play and playwork qualifications and training with Continuing Professional Development at all levels is now even more important.

Recommendations Collating the feedback from respondents, the researchers could draw together a number of key messages. These included: •

•

Reviewing the quality, standardisation and progression of introductory play and playwork training being carried out across Wales. It would appear that some of this training is of a high standard and well delivered although not all. There are concerns about the lack of delivery through the medium of Welsh.

•

Providing training and support for people in different job roles at the right level and most appropriately embedded into different sectors’ own qualifications.

Findings Evidence shows that there is a clear desire for stakeholders to be kept informed and up to date with developments. Respondents highlighted the need for key guidance and information relating to playwork training to be made

Giving further consideration to ways of strengthening the dissemination of information and the provision of an infrastructure to support the delivery of play and playwork qualifications and training with Continuing Professional Development opportunities at all levels.

•

Giving further consideration to the introduction of higherlevel professional strategic management training and qualifications for playworkers and play officers to support the future delivery of play sufficiency.

•

Raising awareness about the importance of play across children’s organisations in Wales.

•

Funding for a series of Play Sufficiency events to build and develop cross sector interest in children’s play and stakeholder engagement.

•

Acknowledging that funding for playwork training is an issue.

Many local authorities have no budget allocated.

–– Providing playwork apprenticeships is a possibility but Playwork: Principles into Practice (P3) is currently not on the Apprenticeship Framework; discussions are needed with SkillsActive, the Sector Skills Council.

–– It is also recommended that further consideration is given to mirroring the funding process in place for youthwork where funding is given to local authorities.

–– Finally, given that there is currently the opportunity to discuss the detail of future EU structural funding (2014 – 2020) for programmes post 2013 with the Welsh European Funding Office potentially there could be an initiative where the Welsh Government supports the introduction of play training matched with EU monies to increase the funding available.

16 | Play for Wales | Summer 2013

A Play Friendly Place

Wales – A Play Friendly Place is a Play Wales campaign to help build a network of support for play across Wales. Share what’s happening locally which is either protecting or prohibiting children’s right to play on the Facebook campaign page. Here is an example of a programme that is contributing to developing friendly places for playing children.

Over the past ten years the Fair Share Trust has invested funding for a strategic play project in Anglesey. This work was guided and supported by a local panel of people: community representatives whose local knowledge and understanding of needs and challenges made them well-placed on how best to invest their area’s Fair Share Trust grants pot.

The Anglesey panel chose to prioritise children’s play as a vital element in community improvement, health and wellbeing. A report had highlighted that there was an ‘absence of a strategic approach to play’ and also identified that the condition of Anglesey’s playgrounds was a concern.

Though perhaps the most visible, the new play spaces in communities across Anglesey are not the only legacy of the Fair Share Trust’s investment. The value of play has a secure place on the local authority’s agenda.

Community organisations have seen how much they can achieve

as a result of their energy and commitment, and have a growing confidence in their ability to ‘make Anglesey a play-friendly place’.

At the end of a ten-year play project Fair Share has produced a short film about the work undertaken in Anglesey, it’s impact and benefits for local communities.

The film features comments from local children and parents: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Za0uWBB8TiY Play Wales received a grant to help implement the Fair Share investment and the work included: •

Development of a business plan for the final period of the Fair Share funding that ensures all the programme priorities are met and makes best use of the resources available.

•

Production of a toolkit that provides clear advice and signposting to community groups developing and managing play spaces.

•

Provision of a targeted training programme for professionals and volunteers in Anglesey in play and inclusion, play and participation and routine playground inspection.

•

Development of guidance and criteria for a small grants scheme aimed at essential maintenance or play events.

•

The provision of ongoing support to the Play Officer in all aspects of the role.

•

A Community Play Seminar for community groups

in managing play areas particularly in relation to risk management and play space design.

•

Development of resources and delivery of a pilot ‘Right to Play’ programme of workshops to five schools to promote the child’s right to play.

Of Play Wales’ involvement in producing the Developing and managing play spaces community toolkit, Liza Kellett, Chief Executive of The Community Foundation in Wales said, ‘Congratulations to Play Wales for its development work in creating such an innovative, valued and seminal toolkit, which fulfills a number of strategic objectives but which is also accessible, effective and extremely useful.’ http://on.fb.me/ playfriendlyplace