New conference to look at impact of lockdown on children's play

Play 2021, on 7 to 8 July, has been organised by Playful Planet and the University of Birmingham, with the support of playful schools specialists, Opal (Outdoor Play and Learning).

Leading advocates of children’s play, including independent writer and researcher, Tim Gill and Helen Dodds of the University of Reading, will be sharing their insights on play and learning at the event.

Adrian Voce, founding director of Play England who now runs Playful Planet advocating for children’s play and child-friendly cities, said, ‘Because child policy tends to be dominated by education, play is often seen through prism of how play contributes to children’s learning outcomes.

‘I wanted to broaden it out and look at it from a wider perspective and how it’s about the space that children are afforded in different contexts, whether in the public domain or socially, in terms of needing permission, and children being welcomed to play in different contexts.’

Children’s need to play has come into sharp focus in the pandemic, with academics, the children’s commissioner, practitioners, and parents and carers, all keenly aware how hard - and possibly damaging - it has been for children to have so little opportunity to enjoy the freedom and the space that they need to play.

Mr Voce added, ‘Children’s play not been recognised in the coronavirus guidance for England as needing any special attention. Other than the occasional mention that playgrounds can either open or have to shut, the need for children to play has not been specifically identified. And that’s a worry.’

Playing Out, a Bristol-based company, has challenged the Government to recognise that children under 12 have a particular need to play out and have even gone so far as to suggest that the rules have been discriminatory and unlawful.