Play: The state of play
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
As Playday 2009 gets under way next week, Nancy Rowntree assesses whether the 235m investment in play is paying off and finds out how the money is being spent.
You wait ages for just a smidgeon of government funding for play and then £235m comes along at once. Since April 2008, play professionals in local authorities right across England have had their work cut out as they put into action plans to spend this cash, working to tight timescales.
Every local authority will receive around £1m "playbuilder" capital investment to renovate old play areas and develop new ones by 2011. Thirty "pathfinder" authorities have each been given over £2m, part of which is to develop a new adventure playground. Several parts of the country are already starting to reap the benefits of the added investment in play (see boxes).
Adrian Voce, director of Play England, which is overseeing the work, wants the new play areas to "break the mould" and go beyond the notion that a playground simply means fencing off a corner of a park, surfacing it with a synthetic material and putting in some metal play equipment. "We are not trying to eradicate all that went before, but we are trying to push local authorities to be a little more imaginative in their commissions," he says.
"Early indications suggest the principles have been really well received. There's been more use of natural resources and also more engagement with local people."
Welcome investment
And the play sector has been hugely welcoming of this long overdue injection of cash. "Children's play areas have been starved of spending for a very long time so the money is a good investment," says Alan Sutton, development team manager of London Play. "The money is making a difference - basically, more kids are enjoying themselves."
With more than 500 playgrounds now open, the programme is on target to have more than 3,500 play areas built or refurbished by 2011. But with councils given only a year to get the first batch of new projects designed and built from scratch, some have voiced concerns that efforts to meet such a tight time-scale mean corners have been cut.
Jess Milne, a consultant playwork trainer who has worked in play for over 40 years, says the short time allowed is "appalling" and has meant that not enough thought has gone into planning. "If you are going to do genuine consultation with communities, it takes time and effort," he says. "But such a short space of time has been allowed for building projects that there is something of a hotchpotch of things that are good and, frankly, things that are not good. The government should allow more time for consultation so that it is more than just a quick fix."
Voce acknowledges the timescale has been tight but says most councils have risen to the challenge. "It was a big ask for local authorities to get up to speed and embrace the planning that was needed," he says. "But by and large authorities have responded really well and we are seeing a mixture of some fantastic new playgrounds and some that may not be vastly different from before but that have benefited from a makeover. If local authorities can do a mixture of the two then I think the community will be happy."
With government money restricted largely to capital investment, it now falls to local authorities to ensure that the new play areas remain sustainable.
"Sustainability is always the big question whenever the government puts in funding," says Paul Bonel, head of children and young people at the play skills council Skills-Active. "Every time you set up new play provision you need the right staff to deliver it and run it. I don't think in proportion that enough money has gone into workforce development - not just for staffing the new provision but generally to ensure the upskilling of the workforce."
Supervision of play areas certainly has an impact on costs but, rather than calling for more funding, Sutton says councils should look at different ways of spending existing budgets. "It's a question of bending budgets instead of inventing new ones," he says. "For instance, employing gardeners to work in parks at times when children are likely to be there with the authority to intervene if they see bad behaviour."
Many in the play sector hope that this programme will help embed play across councils, so that ultimately planning departments consider play just as much as people working in children's services.
For others, the aspirations are even higher. "What's needed is to turn around an attitude among parents and local authorities in general that has built up over the past generation that assumes that play and antisocial behaviour are the same thing," argues Sutton.
"Parents are being constrained by parental peer pressure - you're seen as being a poor parent if you let your children play out, and that needs to change."
This year's annual Playday falls on 5 August. For more information, go to www.playday.org.uk
BRISTOL
In Bristol, Play Watch recruits and trains local adults to oversee children's play areas and work with play rangers in the community.
"It basically involves taking an active interest in that local play space," explains Tom Williams, service manager for play at Bristol City Council. "There's been a high level of damage and vandalism in the past and this is a way to stop that. It makes children and adults proud of their play spaces."
All volunteers receive initial training in the importance of play and the benefits it can bring to the local community. Interested volunteers can then choose to work alongside play rangers, and gain level one, two or three playwork qualifications.
The Play Watch scheme builds on the Big Lottery-funded Play Rangers programme, which has been running in Bristol for nearly two years.
Focusing on four highly deprived areas, the rangers run sessions three times a week all year round and have contributed to a 40 per cent reduction in antisocial behaviour.
"They work with between 30 and 70 children, and both the play rangers and the children turn up in all weathers," says Williams. "We found that as soon as play rangers were there, they immediately attracted other adults to come and work alongside them. We know that there is the interest, it's just a question of tapping into it."
Delivered by two voluntary organisations - CSV and local organisation Barton Hill Settlement - Play Watch is running at six play areas using £50,000 of play pathfinder funding.
The timeframe hasn't been ideal for community involvement, says Williams, "but it's far better than in the past. We're getting really good feedback from communities."
HALTON
In Halton, play is at the heart of a £450,000 rejuvenation of the Runcorn Town Hall grounds that aims to bring together different generations and tackle antisocial behaviour.
"We see play as being a valuable driver for social and community regeneration," says Stuart Duncan, play services manager at Halton Borough Council. "It's much easier to engage people in using facilities for young people and this project brings together families, teenagers and older generations as well."
A new £200,000 play area in the design of a dry river bed has been designed for eight- to 13-year-olds, who can go over it on bridges or a zip line or pass under it through tunnels. A climbing wall, boulders and slides add to the adventure. Elsewhere in the park, a pavilion with public toilets and refreshment facilities, tree-planting and improved paths aim to make the park a more attractive place for families.
About 80 children use the play area each weeknight - a far cry from the "three kids and a dog" Duncan says you would have had hanging round there before.
"It's been amazingly well used," he says. "Nearby there are fairly high levels of antisocial behaviour and youth nuisance and it has been bringing people off the housing estates where there's nothing to do."
Funded by £50,000 of playbuilder money together with £96,000 of National Lottery funds, the council has also received funding from the primary care trust to help maintain the play area.
As one of the first wave of playbuilder authorities, Halton received £299,000 capital funding last year to build six new play areas by this April. But, says Duncan, the total capital investment in the first year has been closer to £1m.
"The playbuilder funding has helped to drive and draw in a range of other funding," he says. "We will probably spend more over the next three years than we've spent in the 37 years I've worked in play."
TOWER HAMLETS
"When you're an urban child, all space is marked out and has an adult agenda," says Penny Wilson, play development worker at Play Association Tower Hamlets. "You're not free to roam about. So it's really important that we advocate spaces totally dedicated to play."
In Mile End Park in the inner London borough of Tower Hamlets, a trail of stepping stones, swathes of draped material and bells and sparkling mirrors strung over tree branches aim to lure children in to discover "liminal spaces" - spaces on the edge that have no fixed purpose other than to be a place for imagination and creativity.
Rather than traditional fenced play areas, which can simply reinforce the built environment, the spaces work to tempt children into a natural setting and to create a fairytale atmosphere.
Wasif Khan, project manager for the play pathfinder project at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, says what has been created is a fantasy land where children can use their own imagination. "They love it, it's magical and secluded," he says. "But it's also safe because it's in the middle of a park."
The spaces contrast sharply with other play facilities in the park also developed with Tower Hamlets funding as a play pathfinder authority - notably a children's pavilion with everything from dressing up clothes for children to a cafe for parents and a big fenced play area. Around £50,000 has been spent in the park altogether.
But although Wilson says the government funding "blew us all away", the timescales have hampered the experience.
"I am disappointed there's been such a rush for it to happen," she says. "It's not been as rich as it could have been."