This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
PLAY


Children should be allowed to take part in risky play to develop essential skills


safer and nicer places to live in, but we don’t have the ‘hard’ statistics to prove it. While we had the national play strat-


egy, we knew that all 364 district and unitary councils had a play strategy that brought together their built environ- ment planning strategies and their child care and out of school strategies. I can’t emphasise enough how important it is for a local authority to have some think- ing about how the needs of children and young people are met in the outdoor environment. We want to know that all departments link into a play strategy, not just the children’s services teams. The Play England team did an ‘unsci-


entific’ ring round every local authority we’ve had a relationship with and we now think that just 20 per cent still have a play strategy in place. That could be cut again this summer with the next round of redundancies. However, these lean times are also


witness to some real innovation. Dudley, which at the height of the play strategy in 2009 was awarded a £2.5m govern- ment grant and leveraged a further £8m investment from health, housing, section 106s and private sector inves- tors, developed a wonderful playground that catered to both able-bodied and disabled children. Faced with redundan- cies when local authority funding was stopped, the playground manager set up an on-site catering business to run private parties and rent out the space to local schools, conference organisers and team building challenges. Consequently the play area now generates a turnover of £120,000 a year. This sort of entrepreneurialism won’t be


right for every community play space, but it’s what the community around that play- ground chose as the means to ensure the


Local authorities need to address children’s needs in the outdoor environment


adventure play sessions after school and in the holidays remain free for all children.


So how can a community make the most of its play provision? It’s important that a community rallies around their local provision and finds the right way of investing into it. This might mean setting up a strong community committee, which can apply for local or voluntary sector trust funding. It might be that local businesses club together because they recognise the benefit of in- creased footfall in that area. Last year we worked with 20 local com-


munities to think about how they could come together to retain and sustain their local play provision. On the back of that we developed a practice guidance for parish councillors on how to look after play, form ‘friends of the parks’ groups and how to use social media to raise awareness of the play provision. We’ve got some great practice guidance for communities on our website at: www.playengland.org.uk.


What are the plans for play provision in the Olympic Park? The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) has assured us that eventually the


64 Read Sports Management online sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital


whole park will be child-friendly and that at least 20 play spaces will be built across the whole area, with the Play England Design Guide and Managing Risk in Play Provision Guide shaping the design and development of each space. The Park’s North Hub will offer a desti-


nation site for older children aged eight to 15 years and this will include a commu- nity centre and café area. The South Hub play provision will be located near to the Anish Kapor Sculpture and will offer play structures for younger children. More bridges are being built to pro-


vide easier access to the Park from surrounding boroughs and we’re looking at ways to support local play associa- tions and others in ensuring that there are safe, playful routes in and out of the park for post-Games use. While the future of some develop-


ment platforms within the Park are being decided, we’d like to see tempo- rary adventure playgrounds erected in these spaces. These could be designed by the whole community and could poten- tially allow for play features to run along a play route that stretched from Tower Bridge, through the Olympic Park and out through Epping Forest – making it the world’s biggest and best play facility. l


Issue 1 2012 © cybertrek 2012


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