Being sued by parents is something every children's and youth professional dreads. It's the nightmare facing Colin Powell, manager of the Gwenfro Adventure Playground in Wrexham, after a boy fell off an aerial runway and broke his elbow.
Initially, the boy's parents were understanding about the incident. "The mother had used adventure playgrounds as a kid herself and was aware that occasionally these sorts of things happen, although obviously she was upset her son had broken his elbow," explains Powell.
It was only after the son's grandparents had encountered "no win no fee" solicitors in the local town centre asking people if they knew anyone who'd had an accident recently, that the court case was launched. Powell attributes the family's motivation for pursuing the case as purely financial. "I was very disappointed that this course of action was being taken. The driving force behind it is money," he says.
The aerial runway is still in use but Powell has taken steps to slow it down, a measure he says has not gone down well with the other children. "I now have kids complaining it's not fast enough. We regularly had 20 kids queuing for that piece of equipment but now they don't go on it that much."
Concern over compensation claims mean children and young people are increasingly missing out on chances for risky play, which in turn has a negative impact on their development. "We do children more harm than good by overprotecting them. Play provision has an important role in allowing children to develop independence, to make decisions and to encounter risk for themselves," says Adrian Voce, director of Play England. In April, the government finally responded to such arguments by publishing a consultation Fair Play. Before Christmas, it will reveal the results of its investigation into whether health and safety fears have lead local authorities to buy unstimulating and unpopular play equipment. It will also set out how it plans to reverse this trend.
Meanwhile, professionals such as Powell admit that educating parents about the benefits of risky play can be tough. "We had some little kids who were really into den building - they spent all their time with hammers and nails and so on. Unfortunately, one of them was going to hammer something and he hit himself on the head with the hammer. He wasn't seriously hurt, but he had a bit of an egg on his head," he says. Play workers sorted the child out, took him home and explained to his parents what had happened. But the mother wanted to know why the playground was giving children hammers. "This surprised me a little bit because her two boys were down there since the playground opened and I couldn't believe she didn't have an understanding of what her boys were up to," says Powell. "So I invited her down to come and have a look. When she saw what they were up to she was like, 'oh'. She could see the level of observation that was taking place and she was more than happy after that."
But inviting parents to see for themselves the benefits of "risky" play is easier said than done. "Parents or grandparents want to get involved but the role of the staff is to say come and have a cup of tea - let the kids get on with it.
"Some staff find it challenging to do this. My staff team are fairly young and when you're dealing with older people, telling them what to do it's not easy. But it comes with experience. As parents become familiar with the expected norms here they tend to take more and more of a hands-off approach and let the playworkers do their job," reveals Powell.
Educating parents is something that Michael Pettavel, head teacher at the Randolph Beresford Early Years Centre in West London, has to do all the time to enable children to play and develop. The centre is aimed at under-fives but takes children aged up to eight in the school holidays. It has a large garden where children are encouraged to ride about on two-wheeled bicycles - without stabilisers. "There is an inherent risk in riding these bikes - children will fall off. But by only giving them tricycles you're putting a ceiling on what they're able to achieve. There's a real danger that an adversity to risk actually gets in the way of children's learning," says Pettavel.
The garden also offers a climbing structure, (pictured left) which has been designed to stretch the limits of what children can do. As at Gwenfro Valley, staff intervention is kept to a minimum. "The children really have to concentrate and take responsibility for their behaviour when they're using the frame. Apart from giving verbal assistance, staff don't help children climb onto or down from the frame - they need to learn these skills for themselves and intervention could actually place them at greater risk," says Pettavel.
When children first enrol parents are given a comprehensive tour of the site and staff discuss issues around risk. Daily accident forms are filled in and signed by parents so they know what is going on. Pettavel admits that some parents can be apprehensive if an incident does occur and reluctant for their children to go back into the rough and tumble of the centre's garden, but staff are usually able to allay these fears. "We talk them through the level of risk and the need for the children to engage in these kind of activities - and the benefits. The rewards of climbing, for example, are enormous - we don't have any obese children here," he says.
