Efforts to get children playing outside again begin to take shape

Numerous reports on children’s health and wellbeing have noted that the amount of time children spend playing outdoors is diminishing.

A recent Play England survey found that half of parents say that a fear of strangers and traffic prevents them from allowing their children to play outdoors.

These barriers seem more pronounced in built-up urban areas, but efforts to reclaim the streets and get children playing outside their homes have begun to gather pace.

Following successful initiatives in Bristol, many London boroughs are investigating the possibility of creating safe places for children to play on the streets, led by residents and backed by councils.

But not all areas have embraced the concept so easily. As CYP Now reported last month, the highways department in Croydon vetoed plans to create a designated play street in the area, which would have used the 1938 Streets Playgrounds Act to restrict traffic at a certain time each week.

Meanwhile, a housing association in Plymouth recently wrote to parents telling them to stop their children from playing in pedestrian and parking areas on their estate.

So how can residents, councils and voluntary organisations convince the wider community to embrace children’s right to play on the street?

Support for street play
Rob Wheway, director of the Children’s Play Advisory Service, says a rewording of the 1938 act could persuade more local authorities to back the concept of street play.

“At the moment, all councils see are streets closing and the disruption that could bring,” he explains. “If the wording was changed to ‘safe streets’ and the focus was more on reducing the speed of traffic to a safe level rather than closing streets, they would get more support.”

Wheway argues that traffic on streets designated as areas for children to play should be restricted to 8mph.

“Children will play outside more if they feel it is safe,” he says. “We have seen that with cul-de-sacs, for example, already. Children do not need a sign saying ‘this is a play street’ – they just need to know it is safe to play.

“One of the benefits of play streets is that it does not need facilities. The games children play are things like hide-and-seek and tag, and they really enjoy that.”

Campaign group Fair Play for Children has also called on more to be done to tackle street safety. A petition launched by the group on the Number 10 website calls on all local authorities to produce regular audits of residential street parking spaces and place a requirement on them to designate on-street play spaces in residential streets.

In Bristol, the Playing Out initiative, which was started in 2009 by two neighbours, has seen a turnaround in community attitudes and council support for street play. The project is now branching out to offer national support to residents and organisations.

Alice Ferguson, director and co-founder of the scheme, has been contacted by 15 London councils hoping to replicate the model started in Bristol, which sees local residents take control of street play.

She believes that resorting to legislation is unnecessary and overly bureaucratic, instead arguing that gaining the consent and support of the whole community is the best way to reap far-reaching rewards for children and families.

“We have not used play street legislation because it is difficult to use and costs the council quite a lot to implement,” she says. “We have done it on a much more low-key route through a temporary play street order, which just means that residents have permission to close the road up to once a week and have to manage that themselves.

“It is not a permanently designated play street with big signs, so it is less bureaucratic and means that you have to have the buy-in of residents, not just the council imposing measures. It must be a resident-led thing – it is not going to work with the council imposing it, although the council does have a big role in enabling it.”

Pioneering play streets
London Play is still helping residents to negotiate with Croydon Council, but believes it only takes one council to act as a pioneer and others will follow.

Paul Hocker, play development team manager at the charity, cites the example of Hackney, which is piloting play streets using a similar model to Bristol’s Playing Out initiative.

“Councils have many tentacles. If you are dealing with the highways department they tend to protect motorists’ rights, but if you are dealing with public health, they are likely to be very receptive because of the benefits of play,” he explains.

“So within one council you can get really polarised views and we want to see an attitudinal shift. The biggest shift you can get is when one council leads the way and does something a bit bold and courageous and empowers other councils to change, like Hackney.”

Hocker believes that the benefits of outdoor play outweigh the risks associated with allowing children out on the streets, and that there is a deep need to drive a shift in culture among professionals and parents.

“Over the past few years there has been a heightened perception of risks such as paedophiles and the real threat of traffic, so it is understandable that if a parent is seen to let their child out they might be regarded as negligent or careless so there is a stigma that has developed about children playing out,” he says.

“But by not letting your children go out and learn about road safety and social skills where their imaginations can run free, that is negligent.”

Ferguson adds that street play has a positive effect on whole communities, from the very young to the elderly, if adults in an area are willing to support it.

“For a long time, it has been the dominant attitude that children’s play should happen in contained and provided areas such as parks,” she says. “But the main problem with that is that children can’t necessarily access those spaces independently and we just know this does not happen as much as it needs to for their physical health and wellbeing.

Flexible and fluid
“The great thing about the street is children can pop out and play, come back in to get some food and pop back out. It is more flexible and fluid and there is not such a need for every play session to be organised and time-restricted.”

Ferguson recognises the fears that parents hold about street play, but argues that a collaborative effort can address this.

“The Playing Out model is meant to be a step towards building a more supportive culture for children to be able to play out safely,” she says. “So in fact, it is very supervised and there is no traffic, with stewards at the end of the street monitoring vehicles and children.

“We are trying to recognise those as genuine barriers, but the more parents get to know their neighbours and see the benefit of their children playing out with other children on the street, the more those fears will get allayed.”

She adds: “The reason many parents feel a bit uneasy about street play is that they don’t know their neighbours in the way our parents did when we were kids. Having sessions like this is helping to build that sense of community again.”


Expert view: our attitudes must change
Dr Fraser Brown, professor of playwork, Leeds Metropolitan University

“There are a number of reasons why children don’t play out in the streets anymore. Some of them are parental fears and some children’s own fears.

"Parents have an unwarranted fear of strangers. There is no reason to believe that there are any more unpleasant people hanging around out there than there were 50 years ago. Cases of strangers harming children are unusual, but media reports blow them up to the point that parents are acutely aware.

"The increase in traffic on the streets means it is not unreasonable for parents to be fearful of their kids being out on the street.

"But it is a vicious circle because if children are not out there, they are not seen and are therefore not regarded as part of the community in the way they would have been 50 years ago. Therefore, when children are out there, they are regarded with a lot of suspicion and probably treated quite badly because people are wondering what they are up to, even though all they are doing is playing.

"Nowadays, children have grown up in a more restrictive environment, so somehow we need to make it clear to kids that it is okay to play in the street.

"The more children are outdoors, the more they are likely to meet other children and broaden their social network. This helps children understand how relationships work.

"Also, the more children are able to use their body, the more their motor skills will develop. If children are out on the street, they are able to use their bodies much more than if they are indoors or even in a garden.

"Coming into contact with nature in all its aspects is very good for your intellectual development. Certain things children can do outside are fundamental to their development, like digging holes, forming groups, playing games of chase and building dens.

"When children are playing they will play with lots of objects and combine them and that is the kick-off point for creativity and the opportunities are so much more outdoors.

"We need a change in attitude because we take it for granted in the UK that the car comes first, and why should we? If we can address this, we can begin to get children outdoors.”