How play builds better communities

PROJECT

Stevenage Play Service

FUNDING

Around £500,000 annually from Stevenage Borough Council

BACKGROUND

Stevenage's play centres were initiated in the late 1960s by parents who had relocated from London and were keen to recreate the "adventure playgrounds" that sprang up at bombsites. The council provided staffing and funding from the mid-1970s and still runs three play centres. These are staffed by six playworkers, overseen by play officer Diane Wenham, and supported by 40 to 50 sessional and seasonal staff. Around 5,000 registered users aged five to 14 attended the centres on 55,000 occasions last year.

ACTION

Stevenage's play centres are open from 3.30pm to 6pm from Tuesday to Friday, with morning and afternoon sessions on Saturdays. The centres, which also run additional holiday sessions, provide imaginative free play and supervised risk-taking opportunities, such as building fires and making things with hammers and nails. Staff also oversee arts and crafts, cooking, growing fruit and vegetables, sports, music and dance, alongside activities to develop key life skills.

Each has a play association that children are elected onto. Supported by playworkers, they host meetings and consult peers to shape provision. Meanwhile, a citizenship programme encourages children to identify and tackle improvements needed in the local area.

"There's a recognition that play is fundamental to building healthy and strong communities, and that without this grassroots work, we're going to pick up costs such as higher demand on support services," explains Rob Gregory, assistant director for communities and neighbourhoods at Stevenage Council. "The contribution of play is recognised when we're discussing health and wellbeing and when looking at child poverty and the way playworkers help develop life skills." His department is exploring how to use play centres as a "point of contact to engage families".

Wenham's team has developed a playwork training package called Through the Ethos, which is available to other authorities.

OUTCOME

A consultation of 332 play centre users last summer found 84 per cent rated provision "excellent" and 13 per cent rated it "good". Vulnerable children received 1,136 free breakfasts through the centres' 2016/17 holiday scheme Brunch and Crunch, 57 per cent of the 1,971 breakfasts provided.

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