Aware that some out-of-school workers may have anxieties about the forthcoming framework being a 'curriculum', project leader Peter Williams said, 'The framework will have a list of values and principles which set out the framework's approach. It is a balancing act between allowing children choice and freedom and recognising that the playworker has a role in stimulating and encouraging them.
'It is not a question of the framework suggesting a lot of new activities, although they may be new to some in the field - it is about how to lift people's horizons in what they could or should be providing. When you look at the provision - although some is a bit dismal - almost all of it has some aspects of good practice. The aim is to help play settings have the best practice across a whole range of areas.
'The framework will also have links between some broad areas of children's interests and development and what playworkers can do to support them. For example, out-of-school settings are a chance for children to make new friends and there will be suggestions on how playworkers can encourage this.' The framework - which has yet to be given a formal title - will take the form of a brightly coloured box file with pull-out sheets of information and activity suggestions. Over 30 settings and organisations in England, including SPRITO, the Children's Play Council, Kidsactive, Oxfordshire Play Association, Camden Play Service, High/Scope UK and Barnardos, have been visited and consulted over the past year for the framework, as well as five settings in Denmark.
A draft framework was put to interested parties last September and the feedback was encouraging. Six settings have been piloting aspects of it this year and a further draft will be tried out in training workshops in Southwark, Camden and Croydon in London, as well as Devon during May and June before the launch later in the summer. Any readers in these areas interested in being involved in the workshops should contact Peter Williams on 020 8692 2767 or their local early years partnership.
