Nursery World - A strategy for play

Kevin Jenkins (Letters, 7 August) and I agree that children need more places to play in their community and that local authorities have a clear role in supporting that provision as part of their wider preventative strategies. What that does not mean is that millions of children don't also need access to the same provision at times that their parents are at work. Both are essential to reduce child poverty and support vulnerable children.

Both are essential to reduce child poverty and support vulnerable children.

Kids' Clubs Network is arguing for both - to be delivered through an integrated framework that offers opportunities for all.

Kids' Clubs Network has long argued for more resources for children out of school, which has meant a substantial increase in resources from central Government over the past five years. Where we all have yet to succeed is to win the argument for that same level of resources from local authorities as part of their core priorities.

The crucial point in Kevin's letter is not that one kind of provision is developing at the expense of another, but that locally there is little co-ordination and certainly few strategic plans for school-age provision.

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