Letters to the Editor: Cuts to play services must be exposed

Well done to CYP Now for carrying out its play investigation.

Unite the Union has carried out surveys of play workers since 2010 which highlight individual cuts, closures and redundancies, and it's great to see this overarching investigation.

Cuts to play services have not had the exposure they deserve since they are often seen as a non-essential. However, this masks the important work that play workers do and the important role in communities that adventure playgrounds play.

Many councils that have supported play services for considerable lengths of time have been forced to close them, often against their will, as this government demonstrates yet again their disdain for community in their single-minded pursuit of neoliberalism.

Chris Martin, play work convener, Unite the Union

RESIDENTIAL CHILD CARE 'LEFT IN THE DARK'

At the recent education committee hearing, the children's commissioner for England rightly called for a positive re-profiling of the residential child care sector.

However, the committee was constantly left in the dark, as they sought detail on the strategy that underpins the government's reform proposals for the sector from education minister Edward Timpson.

The committee gave the minister many opportunities to demonstrate a clarity of thought coherently and confidently articulated into a meaningful narrative - and asked for his vision for the sector in 10 years' time.

If the minister is the captain of the ship, then we still don't know where we're headed. He said where there is a will there's a way, but we need the government to show how they will believe in residential options being the right place at the right time, and lead the way.

Jonathan Stanley, chief executive, Independent Children's Homes Association

PRISON NOT THE ANSWER TO COMPLEX NEEDS

Putting more resources into the education of children in custody. Who, except perhaps the most cold-hearted among us, could possibly be against such an idea? Educational outcomes for children who end up in custody are absolutely dire, so surely anything that seeks to improve this must be beneficial?

But as the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Children in contact with the criminal justice system have a range of complex needs, the help for which cannot be found behind the locked door of a prison cell. Poor educational standards are just a symptom of these underlying problems.

Instead of investing in resolving these children's welfare issues in the community, where it might actually be effective, the government is instead pouring money into a "fortified school". This will, in effect, be a big new children's prison with some classrooms attached.

They are repeating the same mistakes of the secure training centres, where two children have died, but at more than six times the scale.

Frances Crook, chief executive, Howard League for Penal Reform