Playworkers receive EYFS guidance

By Ross Watson Thursday, 23 July 2009

Play skills council SkillsActive has published guidance for playworkers on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), to ensure under-sixes can continue to attend play-led settings.

Play worker and children. Credit: Becky Nixon

Playworkers raised concerns with SkillsActive that they were failing Ofsted inspections due to a lack of consensus on how the EYFS sat alongside national standards for the play profession, known as Playwork Principles. The guidance is intended to show playworkers how they can meet the EYFS requirements without compromising these principles.

"Given the demand from the sector and the need for employers to prepare for Ofsted inspections, we have taken the decision to publish the guidelines at this time," said Paul Bonel, head of playwork at SkillsActive.

The guidance was originally intended to be a joint undertaking with the Department for Children, Schools and Families and Play England, but pressure from providers has forced the skills council to push ahead with the plans alone. The guidance comes as early findings from a SkillsActive survey on holiday play schemes revealed that more than 6,000 under-sixes may be turned away if the schemes cannot deliver the requirements.

Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, which runs out-of-school schemes, welcomed the clarification. "The EYFS offers a useful framework for school-aged children, but providers have to be clear about how they make the most of it. This briefing goes a long way to doing that," she said.

The guidance also targets playworkers in out-of-school clubs, adventure playgrounds, extended schools and children's centres.