During October, there have been some changes to both the Board of Play England and to our Executive support that we wanted to share.
We are very grateful to both Panash Shah and Richard Cocker who have left the Board at the end of their terms of office. They have contributed hugely to the organisation over many years and we are grateful for all they have done. We are delighted that Kuldip Ubhi has joined as a new Independent Director / Trustee, and will take over the Treasurer role from Panash.
At Play England’s AGM, Amanda Gummer and Richard Driffield were elected to the Board as representatives of the play sector. Both have long-standing and deep connections across the sector and we look forward to all that they will bring to the Board.
Finally, we are sad to confirm that Eugene Minogue has decided that now is the time for him to move on from Play England as our Executive Director. Over the past three years, he has been a power house for the organisation, getting many initiatives off the ground, designing and leading our Strategy #ItAllStartsWith Play, making many new connections and building strong foundations for the charity. We know many partners and colleagues will be sorry and surprised by this news. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Eugene for his leadership, commitment and contribution to Play England, and for his work championing the importance of play for children and communities across the country.
This now requires the Board to look carefully at how we navigate the next step in Play England’s development without an Executive resource in place and we ask for your patience whilst we do so. We may be a little quieter on social media during this time, and would be grateful for all contact, invites or questions to come via info@playengland.org.uk
However, please be assured that we are focussing at pace on how we continue to deliver Play England’s Strategy and how we support the brilliant work that Tom Hayes MP and the APPG on Play are doing in raising play issues amongst parliamentarians and across Government. The APPG AGM took place successfully for MPs and Peers last week and the programme of meetings for the year ahead is currently under discussion. We are looking at how we work with partners on a range of projects, including evaluation of a hugely successful Conference and Awards earlier this month.
Thank you again for your patience in this period of transition and our new and strengthened Board looks forward to working with you.
Dame Karen Buck, Chair
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, Play England
