Memorandum by the Children's Play Council
(LGC 22)
1. "By far the most appropriate,
accurate and approachable group to consult on play provision is
the children themselves. Not only does this prevent unsuitable
provision and equipment being forced upon them, but it gives them
a level of ownership of new initiatives thereby ensuring its longevity".
James Blockley: Community Parks Officer: Green
Environment: Cheltenham Borough Council
SUMMARY
2. The purpose of this submission is to
illustrate to the Committee the value of local authority consultation
with children and young people over the development of local play
opportunities and provision. We hope that in doing so the Committee
will highlight the value of this type of consultation and recommend
that its use and resourcing becomes universal rather then exceptional.
BACKGROUND
3. Government departments are increasingly
acknowledging the importance of consultation with children and
young people about the delivery of services which affect their
lives. The Change for Children programme, currently lead by the
Department for Education and Skills, encourages consultation and
involvement but, at present, this is far from universal. Good
consultation and true participation depends on staff involved
having a clear understanding of what they are trying to achieve
and what they can offer. They must also have empathy with children
and young people, understand their ways of working and have sufficient
time, management support and resources to undertake effective,
meaningful work. The examples below show how this can be achieved,
giving benefits to both the children and young people and the
service providers. It also illustrates how playworkers are well
equipped to undertake this type of consultation work.
EXAMPLES OF
CONSULTING WITH
CHILDREN AND
YOUNG PEOPLE
Children involved in developing local authority
play strategies
Bradford Metropolitan District Council
4. Children and young people were actively
involved in the development of Bradford's play policy and strategy.
During work on the Strategy in 2002-04, more than 1,300 boys and
girls were consulted by various methods, and a further 200 were
observed at play. They ranged from three to seventeen years old
and came from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds,
neighbourhoods, abilities and socio-economic circumstances. More
than 250 parents or carers were also consulted.
5. The messages from these consultations
are central to the recommendations of the Strategy. The children
and adults talked about play in different ways. Nevertheless,
the basic messages from children, parents and carers all over
the District were strikingly similar. The great majority wanted
to see:
— greater tolerance of children in
local communities;
— more children playing out;
— safer, cleaner neighbourhoods where
street play is possible;
— parks and playgrounds that are accessible,
inclusive, well-maintained, secure and fun; and
— inclusive, staffed play facilities
that offer chill-out space and a range of fun activities, where
adults facilitate and referee, but don't take control.
6. The Strategy was launched in August 2004
and the action plan is now being implemented.
North Tyneside Play-site and Urban Games Strategy
7. Children and young people have also been
consulted over the North Tyneside draft Play-site and Urban Games
Strategy. The Play Service was expanded last year to include the
new post of Urban Games Development Officer. Part this role has
been to look at the development of wheeled sports provision and
multi use games areas which are recommended in the strategy. It
will also involve consulting children and young people over play-site
development within the borough, working in partnership with the
Neighbourhood Facilities Officer (Play-site design and development).
The draft Play-site and Urban Games Strategy will be going before
Council Cabinet in February 2005.
8. The consultation with children and young
people who participate in wheeled sports (skateboarding, BMX riding
and Inline skating) was done via a survey and a "Free Open
Skate Event". This established the need for skate-parks and
identified the elements of a successful skate-park.
9. Once the strategy has been adopted there
will be feed back to the children and young people on the way
forward and also to thank them for their support to date. A short
DVD was made at the Skate event. This will be used to promote
awareness of the need for wheeled sports provision in other areas.
It will also give a positive message about the provision for wheeled
sports.
Stoke-on Trent Play Plans Plus
10. This project is part-funded by Stoke-on-Trent
Children's Fund and delivered by Stoke-on-Trent City Council's
Play Service. The project works with groups of young people aged
five to 13-years old. The project seeks children's views on the
local environment, how conducive it is for play and how it can
be improved. The Play Service has targeted the work in areas that
will be affected by the Housing Pathfinder programme. The Pathfinder
programme will result in significant reconstruction of many communities
in the North Staffordshire sub-region over the next ten years.
The Play Plans Plus project has allowed children to liaise with
the architects leading the community consultation process, thus
ensuring that their views are heard.
11. Each of the communities has a team of
playworkers who have gathered children's views through a variety
of creative methods. The project works with children in out-of
school play settings, so the engagement of the children is voluntary.
In addition to games, quizzes and modelling exercises the consultation
process has also involved taking children to new types of environments
outside their immediate area. This has included HomeZones, Adventure
Playgrounds, Environmental Centres and high quality play areas.
12. The Play Plans Plus project aims to
provide a play plan for each of the communities that it operates
from. Each of the play plans will identify what children perceive
as their barriers to play and what changes they would like to
their communities to improve their play experiences. This information
will be fed into the Housing Pathfinder process as well as other
service providers (eg Department of Urban Environment). It is
anticipated that the final plans will be in differing formats.
Training young consultants
Young consultants in the London Boroughs of Lambeth
and Southwark
13. PLAYTRAIN, a play training and consultancy
service based in Birmingham have trained children in different
local authorities to become young consultants. They have worked
with Southwark Council to consult children about the development
of local open spaces. Their work with Lambeth Council Play Service,
consulting with children over their play needs, fed into Lambeth's
Play Policy which has since informed the development of play opportunities
in the Borough. The play service also made a short video which
has since been used to inspire other children to get involved
in this type of work.
Involving children in the most deprived areas
of Gloucestershire
14. In Gloucestershire the "Gloucestershire
Neighbourhood Projects Network" develop, promote and support
activities that make significant and sustainable improvements
to nine disadvantaged communities in Gloucestershire. These communities,
with large amounts of social housing, are home to over 70,000
residents of which 14,900 are of school age. These communities
represent the largest concentration of deprivation, ill-health,
child poverty and unemployment in the county.
15. In 2002 the Council set up a Neighbourhood
Children's Commission. Children collected and collated evidence
and highlighted a serious lack of play and recreation space within
their home communities. The work has since been funded by NOF
"Better Play" programme. This funding has enabled the
authority to develop neighbourhood play strategically within Gloucestershire.
This has been particularly successful with Gloucestershire Children's
Fund, Positive Activities for Young People (PAYP) and at neighbourhood
level.
16. The involvement of children has been
a key part of this work and the children have become expert play
auditors. They now continue undertake reviews of open spaces and
places available for them for play and recreation in their home
community and have made recommendations to key people and organisations
for improvements to their neighbourhoods.
METHODS FOR
INVOLVING CHILDREN
Gloucestershire Play Plan Methodology
17. Extracts from "Whaddon, Lynworth
& Priors Play Plan" to show the methodology used for
each plan.
Step One: Over 50 children looked at a big map
of the local area and marked where they live and where they play
on it with coloured dots.
Step Two: The children then filled in a questionnaire
about play spaces and places. Children handed out the questionnaires
themselves and helped those that needed support by reading the
questions and writing their answers for them.
Step Three: More mapping work was done at the
Neighbourhood Project's computer room where multi-map was used
to get an aerial view of some of the spaces.
Step Four: A small group of eight children were
then invited to become Play Auditors. This group spent a day walking
around the area taking photos of play spaces and recording interviews
with other children and parents.
Step Five: The Play Auditors met to view and
talk about the photos. The photos were then shown to children
at an indoor play session. These children discussed the play spaces
and gave us ideas on how to improve them.
Step Six: The Play Auditors went on a field
trip so they could see some other types of play projects. An adventure
playground in Gloucester and a Cyber Snack Cafe with a Community
Garden in Churchdown were both visited to give the children an
idea of what might be possible in their own community.
Step Seven: The Play Auditors met to review
photos from the field trip and to finalise their suggestions for
play improvements. This session ended with a celebratory swim
at the local swimming pool.
Step Eight: The photos and children's comments
were presented to two groups of adults who work or live in the
area. The adults' views have also been used in this Play Plan.
Step Nine: Some important local organisations
and key people like Whaddon, Lynworth & Priors Neighbourhood
Project, Cheltenham Borough Council, Sure Start and the Youth
Service were then asked about their plans for the area.
Step Ten: All the information was then gathered
and used in this plan. The Play Plan was adopted by the Neighbourhood
Project and launched.
18. The provision of healthy snacks was
also an important part of this project. They constantly reminded
children to eat healthily by always offering juice, fruit and
cereal bars. This has left some of them with a lasting impression.
CONSULTING CHILDREN—THE
COSTS
19. Useful tools for a play audit: include
a digital camera, a laptop computer with software for viewing
photo's, a voice recorder, clipboards & pens, maps of the
area, healthy snacks and, above all, lots of time and skilled
playwork staff.
20. For most consultation with children
the largest cost is staff time. In Gloucestershire the main resource
was a playworker with skills in play-space design, community development
and participatory work with children. The staff cost of each play
audit, from mapping to adoption of play plan was approximately
£2,500.
21. Considerable in kind support was also
given by each Neighbourhood Project with volunteers, meeting space,
computers with internet access and other neighbourhood based workers.
CONCLUSIONS
22. Local authority consultation with children
and young people over the development of play provision is not
only valuable but increasingly seen as essential if local need
is to be properly met. Good consultation requires time, skills
and resources. Playworkers are well equipped to support these
processes.
THE CHILDREN'S
PLAY COUNCIL
23. The Children's Play Council is the leading
national play organisation in England, working under the aegis
of the National Children's Bureau. We represent the views of our
members: national and regional play organisations, local authorities
and childcare partnerships. We promote more and better play opportunities
for children and young people. We currently hold a play policy
development and research contract with the Department for Culture
Media and Sport.
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