Feature - Play: The Play Rangers

It is a cold, wet afternoon and children sit huddled around a bag of clay making cobra snakes and coil pots. Some are wrapped up in thick coats, while others shiver in thin long-sleeved tops.

"We often have to send the children home to put coats on as they don't wear clothes that are warm enough. We hold the sessions even if it is raining or snowing," says Angela Frankham, a play ranger from the Community Play Rangers scheme that covers Bath and North East Somerset.

About 25 children cluster in groups in the park in Keynsham, a town situated between Bath and Bristol. While some are gathered around the clay, others take it in turns to lie in an old sheet that has been tied to some playground equipment and transformed into a hammock.

Paige Smith, 10, sits on the ground making a snake. "There is not much to do in the square in front of the flats so it is really good that the play rangers come. I like doing the cooking and making things with the clay," she says. Her friend Rebecca Bailey, eight, likes "swinging in the hammock best because it is really cool".

Play rangers, trained play workers who facilitate play in public places that children were afraid to go in the past, are emerging as the heroes of local play strategies. Councils across England have been developing these strategies in order to get a slice of £124m from the Big Lottery Fund's Children's Play programme, which launched in 2006. A spokesman for Play England says: "Early indications show that play rangers are a strong feature in most local authority play strategies. The play ranger model has been quite successful and a high proportion of local authorities want to use funding from the Big Lottery to run play ranger programmes."

The success of this initiative is widely credited with persuading the government to place so much emphasis on play in the recent Children's Plan. This includes proposals for 30 new adventure playgrounds or supervised play parks in disadvantaged areas. Tim Gill, former Children's Play Council director and consultant on play, says: "Local authorities will have to put forward their thoughts as to what they envisage these supervised playgrounds to look like. It may be that there will be a more flexible, community model that will work with play rangers."

Valuable asset

Like all play rangers, those in the park at Keynsham bring all the equipment with them. "We have a little stove that we bring with us as the children often ask if they can cook noodles or pancakes or make hot chocolate. If it is raining we put up a shelter made from a tarpaulin," explains Andrew Gillan, another play ranger.

The children come and go as they please and vary in age from about five to 13. "The parents are generally enthusiastic about us, although they don't seem to quite understand what we do. Because we are not directly in care of the children, it all seems to be a bit of an alien concept," says Gillan.

As well as one-off activities, the play rangers organise other projects such as gardening or visit the woods nearby, to make dens and build fires with the children.

Managed by Wansdyke Play Association, the Community Play Rangers scheme is jointly financed by Bath & North East Somerset Council and the Children's Fund. Set up in 2001, it was one of the first in the country and now employs eight play rangers plus a roving ranger covering eight sites in Bath, Norton Radstock and Keynsham. It is currently recruiting for two more play rangers to cover two new sites. Sarah Davies, operational development manager of the scheme, says: "We try to reach children in the most needy areas."

Another play ranger scheme, seen as a valuable asset by its local council, is Reccy Rangers, which has been going for four years in Shropshire. Reccy Rangers employs four play rangers and is involved in the extended schools programme. Play rangers visit five primary schools at lunchtimes and after school every week. They also visit five different sites in parks in Shrewsbury and the surrounding area. Its extended schools work means Reccy Rangers receives funding from the extended schools programme, but it's also funded by the Big Lottery, the Community Safety Partnership Fund and the council.

It has two vans: one is a play van for four- to 14-year-olds, stuffed full of play, arts and craft, drama and sports equipment; the second provides more street sport activities for older children aged from 11 to 16. Dorothy Jones, who runs Reccy Rangers and is also play development officer at Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council, believes people are starting to recognise the need for play rangers. "We have found we are getting more and more support from the council," she says.

In Shropshire, the decision to operate the scheme in rural areas came out of the local play strategy. "The strategy recognised that children in rural areas had a lack of things to do. The scheme also provides more opportunities for volunteering, which was another thing highlighted in the play strategy," explains Jones.

Under the new Big Lottery funding for play, there are more play ranger projects planned in London than any other single type of project. "The funding has led to 28 out of 33 London boroughs planning play ranger schemes. However, they will have a relatively small number of staff and they will have to spread themselves about. It may also be a problem finding enough suitable candidates to fill all the positions," says Alan Sutton, policy and development officer at London Play.

He believes it's important that play rangers teach play and games with natural or found materials. "A project in estates in one London borough had little long-term effect after its temporary funding ran out as they had focused on using expensive equipment, such as mixing decks and video recorders. It conferred status and prestige on the project, but did not enable young people to do it for themselves," he says.

It's also vital play rangers have an effect on play in the park or estate where they work beyond just the hours they are there. "The schemes will not be good enough if it's only fun when the rangers come," says Sutton. "Play rangers need to work with parents, young people, public space managers and the local community to overcome fears that currently prevent many parents from letting children play out."

Some of the play ranger sessions in Bath have had that effect according to anecdotal evidence from Michael Follett, the scheme's founder, says Gill. "Good play ranger schemes should be aiming to put themselves out of business in the long-term," he adds.

OUR PLAY RANGERS

Children at a park in Keynsham, near Bath, explain why they like their play rangers

"If I wasn't here I would be at home watching telly" - Paige Smith, 10

"My mum likes me coming as I am bored in the house. They know we are with adults so they feel safer" - Rebecca Bailey, 8

"I like cooking. If I wasn't here, I would probably be sat in bed watching television" - Josh McBurney, 7

PLAY'S TIME HAS COME

Play is at last high on the government agenda with the first ever national play strategy due out this year and a £225m investment into creating more and safer places to play. The strategy, announced last December as part of the Children's Plan, will be led by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The government has also pledged to pay for at least 3,500 playgrounds to be rebuilt or renewed and made more accessible for disabled children. A Play Pathfinder programme will pilot 30 new adventure playgrounds or supervised play parks for eight- to 13-year-olds in disadvantaged areas, supervised by trained staff.

Adrian Voce, director of Play England calls it a "fantastic result" for the play sector. He claims the success of the Big Lottery Fund's Children's Play programme, launched in 2006, has been a major factor in triggering this change.

He questions whether the government will be able to focus on the bigger challenges of reconstructing public space and changing perceptions so children feel safe to play unsupervised. But, he hopes the strategy will go down as a "moment society agreed that among the most effective interventions for children was to simply make space for them to be children."