Speaking at a conference to mark the official launch of Play England, Adrian Voce, director of the Children's Play Council and Play England, said that there had been a 'remarkable increase' in the profile of play provision and play space in the last two years, with 'all the main parties'
making reference to it in policy announcements or conference speeches.
In August, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published Time for Play, which set out its commitment to lead a 'more strategic, cross-departmental approach to play policy' (News, 24 August). This followed Frank Dobson's 2004 play review.
But Mr Voce said, 'It's going to need more from Government to join up these different areas of activities highlighted in Time for Play if we're going to have any impact at all. There's a limit to what DCMS can do on its own initiative, so we have to look to the Department for Communities, the Department of Health, the DfES and the Department for Transport to take up their responsibilities.'
He added, 'One lottery-funded Children's Play Programme of 155m is fantastic and we welcome it. But it was not Government policy; they deferred the decision to the Big Lottery Fund from Frank Dobson.'
The need to plan, develop and maintain better public and open spaces was also debated at the conference.
Helen Goodman MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on children's play, said that she was 'concerned' that planning guidance for local authorities was not 'tough enough'.
After the debate, Mr Voce told Nursery World that the extent of play deprivation was at 'least as damaging as the prevalence of junk food' and that a Government review of the impact of current planning policy guidance would be welcome. 'Anecdotally, what we're hearing and what we're observing is that whatever standards are being adopted locally aren't robust enough, so new developments aren't properly taking account of the ways children need to use space for play,' he said.
The Children's Play Council's Play England project, a five-year project to promote strategies for free play and to create a lasting support structure for play providers in England, was awarded 15m from the Big Lottery Fund in February. Last month nine regional managers were appointed to support local areas in developing play strategies and 40 'enablers' have been recruited to provide expert help and advice to local authorities.
Launching the enabler programme, Mr Voce said, 'We are working with CABE Space, the Government's advisor on architecture and public space, on our enabler programme because we want the play strategy to have strong links with the open space strategy.'
More information is available at www.playengland.org.uk.
