Play Builds Children: A Statement from the Children’s Play Policy Forum The Children’s Play Policy Forum A collective voice for children’s play Press Statement 4th February 2019 For Immediate Release A crisis in childhood is happening every day, all around us. The Children’s Play Policy Forum has today issued a policy statement identifying a crisis …
ZURICH INSURANCE: Do the ‘underwrite’ thing and don’t bar adventure playgrounds from your services
Play England and London Play are calling on Zurich, which recently withdrew its cover from several adventure playgrounds, to revisit its decision, issuing a Joint Statement which highlights what could be lost should other insurers follow suit. Lawrence Waterman OBE, chair of the British Safety Council said: “Young people need to learn about taking and managing …
Our submission to Labour Party Consultation on Statutory Youth Services
Today, Play England made its full submission to the Labour Party’s consultation on Building Statutory Youth Services. Play England welcomes Labour’s consultation on ‘Building a statutory youth service’. We support the creation of a National Strategy for Youth Work and a Charter underpinned by law, to define sufficient levels as well as a sustainable funding …
Play needs increased funding
With the latest report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing girls spending more time involved in play activities than boys, Play England is highlighting how the chronic funding crisis on the play sector means girls in particular are missing out on play opportunities. The ONS report ‘Children’s engagement with the outdoors and sports …
Shiremoor leads the way on quality in play
Shiremoor Adventure Playground is the latest play organisation to be accredited with Quality in Play (QiP), Play England’s quality assurance system for playwork practitioners. Shiremoor, in Newcastle upon Tyne, is a former mining area with high levels of deprivation. The adventure playground opened in 2010 as part of the Play Pathfinder Programme on a previously …
Valuing adventure playgrounds
Nic Mcewan is lead for the three year project, Play Works, designed to help adventure playgrounds improve how they monitor the impact they have on their communities. Here she describes how the project works. “Still something of a newbie on the play scene, it was only a couple of summers ago that I walked into an …
Adventure into Sport helps children and families get active
Play England is delighted to announce our new project, #AdventureintoSport which launches on Monday 26 June. At the moment, too many children are leading inactive lives with increasing numbers either overweight or obese. Many are growing up in over-crowded housing without access to quality play and sports opportunities outside school. Adventure into Sport offers …
Playwork qualifications – July UPDATE
Following calls by Play England for playworkers to lobby qualification awarding bodies to extend registration of Playwork Diplomas CACHE and City & Guilds have reviewed their stance and extended the registration for some of the qualifications for another year. Thank you to all those play workers and play organisations who took the time to write expressing their …
Take the play challenge!
Michael Follett set up OPAL – Outdoor Play and Learning – five years ago. Since then, hundreds of schools across the UK, as well as schools in Canada, New Zealand and Australia have completed the OPAL Primary Programme. Here, he explains how he persuades head teachers to invest in play development. “The best way to …
Job vacancy: Senior Development Officer
Senior Development Officer (Ref: SDO 2017) 28 hours p/w, location to be negotiated £24,737 (incl London weighting, if applicable) Play England is looking for an experienced development officer to deliver the new ‘Adventure into Sport’ project. The post holder will work with a play project in Bradford, Yorkshire and another in Tower Hamlets, London to …