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February 2010
Don’t be distracted from the importance of play
Play
Children with regular planners and others whose
access to such spaces are remit includes public space,
shorts
much more likely to enjoy and a promise to introduce
their childhood's and to grow planning policy that stresses
Lower speed limits show
up healthier and happier. the needs of children within
reduction in child fatalities
These areas are also good for the built environment and the
and injuries
communities: where children way open spaces are used.
Speed limits of 20mph
and young people have their Nor is this policy a whim of
have reduced the number of
own places to play or to hang children's secretary Ed Balls
children killed or seriously
out – everyone benefits. and his supposedly
injured on London's roads,
Yet, research has shown centralising tendencies, as
according to a report
that children's freedom to play Harris suggests. The origins of
published in the British
out has been in steep decline the play strategy stem from
Medical Journal.
for many years and that the the 2001 election, when the
resulting sedentary lifestyles then culture secretary, Chris
of many children is a Smith, pledged lottery
Study shows decline in
significant factor in increasing funding to improve children's
levels of childhood obesity.
children’s fitness over last
playgrounds – a promise
The national play strategy endorsed by his successor,
ten years
takes on this challenge and Tessa Jowell, following an
According to new
has given rise to a change, independent review by the
research published in the
both in the priority now being former health secretary Frank
Archives of Disease in
afforded to children's play by Dobson.
Childhood, children have
local councils and in the And in case this sounds
become less fit over the last
quality of play areas being like a roll call of similarly
ten years. The study by the
provided. It will see 3,500 new minded New Labourites, the
Centre for Sports and
or improved play areas and at Conservatives' 2008 report
Exercise at Essex University
least 30 staffed adventure into childhood was entitled
found that boys were nine
playgrounds or play parks by More Ball Games and cited
per cent less fit than they
2011. It has introduced new the lack of freedom for
were 10 years ago, with girls'
design principles and children to play out as a major
fitness having declined by
guidance on risk management challenge for child policy.
seven per cent
that should see an end to the There is an instinctive
risk-averse approach that has aversion to government
made too many public interference in something as
Baroness Morgan to deliver
playgrounds dull and spontaneous and natural as
four nations keynote
unattractive. children playing, but the
address
Perhaps more importantly reality is that if government
Baroness Morgan will
than the investment, the play didn't act we would be
deliver the keynote address
strategy takes on the need for condemning generations of
to Playing the long game, a
local planning, housing and children to a type of "battery-
four nations meeting which
traffic management to better reared" existence, where play
will review recent policy
consider the needs of children is increasingly defined by
developments for children’s
Adrian Voce, the director
spontaneous as children who consistently rate better in the public realm. A degree sitting in front of a screen.
play. The Parliamentary
of Play England, writes
playing, but the alternative is play facilities and safer, more of independent mobility for Far from being absurd, the
Under-Secretary of State for
about the importance of the
a 'battery-reared' existence. child-friendly neighbourhoods children as they grow up is an play strategy is one of the
Children, Young People and
national Play Strategy in
The play strategy takes on the as a top priority. essential element of a healthy, most progressive and popular
Families will join speakers
response to a comment by
need for local planning to Play is a fundamental need sustainable community, which policies of the last few years,
from the Local Government
John Harris in the online
better consider the needs of for children that, as they grow, will require a culture change in addressing a real and long-
Association (LGA), think tank
edition of the Guardian 4
children in public spaces. requires local, accessible the way local planning term problem that no
Demos and leading thinkers
January 2010.
John Harris considers the space that parents can trust to decisions are made. government can afford to
in play, planning and urban
national play strategy as be safe but that is also It is to the government's ignore.”
design, to debate how to
“There is an instinctive
"borderline absurd". He has physically challenging, credit that it has committed to
sustain the momentum for
aversion to government
clearly lost contact with the stimulating, attractive and make this change, with Play England
change.
interference in something as
views of children and families, well-maintained. guidance and training for
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