From an early age, 'play is important to a child's development and learning. It isn't just physical. It can involve cognitive, imaginative, creative, emotional and social aspects. It is the main way most children express their impulse to explore, experiment and understand.'
This definition of the importance of play appears in a national play review, commissioned by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and chaired by former health secretary Frank Dobson. Its aim is to reveal deficiencies, highlight good practice and indicate the most efficient use of 200m of Lottery cash pledged to the development of play projects in 2001.
The review suggests that 80 per cent of the money from the New Opportunities Fund (NOF), which will be distributed in 2005-2006, should be allocated 'to improve and open up thousands of high-quality play opportunities that respond to the needs and wishes of children and young people and recognise their evolving competencies and interests'. Poorer areas will be given priority in this process. The remaining 20 per cent is to be ring-fenced to fund innovative approaches.
The eight-month review involved visits to examples of good practice in the UK and Denmark and consultation with play specialists, parents and children, including an online survey of children's views by the BBC's 'Newsround' programme, which received a record 1,800 responses.
Sites visited ranged from The Venture in Wrexham, a large, staffed adventure playground with sports facilities, having capital costs of 800,000 and 350,000 annual running costs, to the small Brentor play facility on Dartmoor in Devon, which cost just 17,500 and has annual running costs of 450.
The review, Getting Serious About Play, says that provision has been given a low priority, play projects have been neglected, playgrounds run down, levels of supervision in public playgrounds and parks reduced and play staff cut back.
It attributes this partly to 'the need of local authorities to concentrate their attention and resources on statutory services' and the absence of comprehensive local play strategies.
The report says that traditional models of provision - the public playground, the holiday playscheme and the adventure playground - have not matched changes in culture and society, and investment has focused almost exclusively on the installation of off-the-shelf fixed-play equipment.
'Yet there is good evidence that children and young people value and enjoy landscaping, sand, water, trees and bushes and other natural elements as much as, or more than, equipment,' the review states.
Value and innovation
The report says the common elements of successful play opportunities are best captured in the acronym VITAL. They should be Value-based, In the right place, Top quality, Appropriate and Long term. Play facilities in the VITAL spaces strand will form the bulk of the investment.
Meanwhile, it says, the 40m to be spent on innovation through the Playful Ideas strand 'will be particularly valuable in stimulating innovative ways to include disabled children and young people, children in care and other groups excluded from mainstream provision'.
While child safety must be assured, Sandra Melville, director of Playlink, believes there has been a damaging effect from the risk-averse culture in which providers have lived in constant fear of litigation as a result of accident and injury. She explains, 'There is a very precautionary approach, which means there is a lot of money being spent on really quite boring and repetitive provision.'
Providers need to be aware of 'the concept of transfer of risk', and that if children are not sufficiently challenged they will seek risks elsewhere, 'in either a socially damaging way or in a way that puts them at risk of injury and death,' she adds.
Tim Gill of the Children's Play Council, who led the review, says the report is 'robust in saying that a good play facility is one that allows children managed opportunities to take risks'. He points to recent research by the Health and Safety Executive showing that in general, children suffer very low levels of injury in playgrounds.
Understanding play
Sandra Melville was heartened by a recent House of Commons debate where children's entitlement to free time and space to play was acknowledged for the first time. She believes the Government now realises that play does not just refer to equipment, although she is not sure this has filtered down to all local authorities.
Janet Moyles, former professor of education at Anglia Polytechnic University, is less convinced. 'I don't think the Government yet really understands play as an in-depth concept. There must be a recognition that young people's play, in particular, is a form of multiple, simultaneous and motivating engagement with the world. It is an integral part of every child, not just something they do when they are bored,' she says.
The review calls on the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education and Skills to work together to ensure that the creation of high-quality provision is supported across Government and given a high priority with national and local decision-makers. It wants local authorities to appoint a 'play champion' to improve the planning and operation of play facilities in their area.
Tim Gill wants local authorities' comprehensive performance assessments - local government's equivalent to Ofsted inspections, conducted by the Audit Commission - to include targets relating to play.
Inadequate funding
While the 200m from the NOF has been widely welcomed, there is an equal consensus that it is not nearly enough for the creation and long-term sustainability of play facilities.
Frank Dobson hints at this in his foreword to the review when he says the NOF money 'will go a lot further if local schemes can manage to bring in money from other public sources or voluntary funds'. In a calculated nudge to the Government, he suggests that Lottery funding should be pledged to play projects for the next ten years.
Tim Gill puts the NOF money, which will be allocated and not subject to a bidding process, into perspective when he reveals that merely to bring existing fixed equipment playgrounds up to scratch would cost some 500 million.
Gill Evans, information officer of Play Wales, says the urgency of having a consistent funding strategy is underlined by the current cutbacks in play schemes by councils in England and Wales. 'When you think of the huge amount of play deprivation around the country, the 200m is nowhere near enough.'
Play Wales and Children in Wales have been given the contract by the Welsh Assembly to draw up recommendations for a play strategy which she says is likely to be 'extremely child- and play-centred'.
Sandra Melville says that reliance on Lottery money suggests that play is being marginalised. 'I am not arguing for one unified funding stream; it's valuable to have a number of streams. The really damaging thing is project funding that comes and goes and ends up leaving children disappointed.' She is particularly concerned that the NOF money is 'limited and short term'
and that it fails to tackle the need for ongoing revenue.
Listening to children
When children were invited to a series of consultation events with adults and were asked their views through the 'Newsround' online survey, there was a strong consensus that 'funding should be used for supervised, open access play'. Children favoured smaller, local provision.
Janet Moyles welcomes the consultation with children, but also believes that 'open-ended discussions with children would reveal some things that adults have never thought about'. Play should not be regarded as only physical - a notion that seems to inform the design of most playgrounds, which 'often neglect the imaginative aspects of play and development'.
Philip Waters, a play specialist now working for Save the Children in Cornwall, says he understands the review's arguments for using schools as play areas, but is less sure that children will see the logic of this.
Tim Gill acknowledges that there are issues such as maintenance, insurance and the security of the school which place a question a mark against the proposal to use schools.
However, he says the review team also recognised that the Government is poised for 'a massive capital investment' in both schools and new housing developments around the UK. 'We saw this as an opportunity to try out some new ideas using the money for innovation, which could then be rolled out in a wider programme. Location is important. Children want their play space to be part of their community, on their territory.'
