PLAYING POLITICS

Play England worked with Tom Hayes MP to secure a parliamentary debate on the provision of playgrounds. The debate, which took place on 8 January 2025, was seen as an important step in the ongoing efforts to promote children’s right to play

The recent parliamentary debate on playgrounds presented a crucial opportunity to address the growing threats facing playgrounds. Among the play sector, there has been growing alarm over how budget pressures, competing priorities and the absence of robust national safeguards are leaving play spaces at risk. Titled “Provision of Playgrounds by Local Authorities”, the debate – led by Tom Hayes MP, was seen by play sector leaders as a vital moment for the industry to voice those concerns and to strengthen the momentum created by the recent National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) amendment, which identified the protection of ‘formal play spaces’.

Ignored and forgotten

In his opening statement, Hayes said that when the government looks to fix public services, it should be on the side of children and include play as an important element of future planning. He also presented his view that the reason so many playgrounds and play facilities had been lost was that they simply had been ‘forgotten about and ignored’.

“We need to be as serious about the play of children as we are about the work of adults,” Hayes said. “Our country has trivialised play for too long.

“I am astonished that there has only ever been one national play strategy, which was launched 17 years ago. I am also astonished that this is the first debate on the subject in eight years and – at an hour in length – the longest for 17 years.

We need to be as serious about the play of children as we are about the work of adults

“Is it any wonder that our playgrounds are ignored and left rotting, when our Parliament barely discusses them and when the last Government to invest in them – a Labour Government – did so 17 years ago, only for their £235 million programme to be cut three years later by the coalition government?”

Health benefits

Prior to the debate – with the view of getting people’s views on play – Hayes launched a survey in his constituency of Bournemouth East. He said the survey received 642 responses and, based on them, he had identified six major areas of concerns and points he wanted to bring to the debate.

“One of the main things that parents tell me they want from playgrounds for their children is a place to grow, to experiment, to push themselves, to learn alongside others and to be free from a screen-obsessed childhood,” Hayes said.

“They also mentioned that in a cost of living crisis, playgrounds give families places to spend time at no cost. They provide vital outdoor spaces for parents and families who do not have space at home and can also help to end the isolation that parents can feel; it is not just children who benefit.”

Hayes also highlighted how parents are aware of the huge health benefits that adequate play provision could help provide.

“In the survey, one parent asked ‘how can we keep our kids away from screens when playgrounds are broken, unattractive, a lot of times unkept and dirty’,” Hayes said.

“Some politicians tell children to get outside more, but it is not fair to criticise them for spending time on their screens, enjoying play in the only way they know how. It is usually the same politicians who have forced them, through policies and funding cuts, to shrink their world to their home or – even worse – to the smartphone in their hand.

Policy

Playgrounds: six points to consider

During the debate, Hayes brought up six points which had been identified as priority areas in a survey of his constituents: 1 Playgrounds should be places to grow, to experiment and to learn alongside others 2 In a cost of living crisis, playgrounds give families places to spend time at no cost 3 Playgrounds are vital spaces for parents and families who do not have space at home 4 Due to the lack of safe outdoor play areas, children are spending more time on their screens 5 playgrounds are important places for children with special educational needs and for their carers 6 Playgrounds can also help to end the isolation that parents can feel; it is not just children who benefit

“When playgrounds are being locked up or sold off and when parents lack safe outdoor spaces, where is left for children to go? Parents know that few of the social skills that children need as adults will be acquired through the scrolling of bottomless social media feeds.

“Anyone who has seen a two-year-old master the touch-and-swipe interface of a smartphone knows that we risk more and more children at younger and younger ages spending more and more hours scrolling through bottomless feeds. Parents are concerned.”

Play sufficiency

During the debate, Hayes urged the government to look at implementing play sufficiency legislation in England, bringing it in line with Wales and Scotland, which already have it in place. He argued that there was a perfect opportunity to do so through the planning and infrastructure bill.

He also suggested that the government could give playgrounds the same status as sports facilities, by extending Sport England’s remit to play areas so that consideration of playgrounds becomes a statutory duty.

When it comes to local authorities doing more, Hayes wanted to see more authorities follow the example of the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Pool Council (BCP), which has created a Plan for Play for the region. Based on its own research, BCP has brought forward a strategy that sets out how our play infrastructure should be managed, designed and improved.

“I urge the Government to mandate local authorities to map play facilities and their current state and quality,” Hayes said. “BCP Council did so voluntarily, not because it was mandated. I commend the council for agreeing to the Plan for Play strategy.”

A clear strategy, Hayes argued, would encourage more children and young people to discover outdoor play and spend less time on screens. This would lead to benefits in both physical and mental health, as well as strengthen communities.

“Young brains are being rewired,” Hayes warned. “We want children to be children, because that is a good thing in its own right, but we must keep it in mind that the growing number of children hooked on social media today may become a growing number of patients of mental health services and economically inactive adults. This will contribute to less in tax to the Treasury while increasing demand on already strained publicly funded services.

“Just as our predecessors in Parliament passed legislation more than a century ago to protect children against work-based childhoods, we can pass a safer phones Bill to make smartphones less addictive for children.” The full debate can be watched at: [www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IDiKrL8GWI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IDiKrL8GWI)

Playgrounds provide vital outdoor spaces for families who lack space at home and help end the isolation parents can feel

During the debate 12 MPs made comments. Here are some of them

Jim Shannon MP – DUP (Strangford)

If we ask any councillor in any borough of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland about playground provision, they will say that one of the biggest issues they face is not simply securing funding for play parks, but upkeep and the need for better provision of disabled access equipment. It happens all the time. Outdoor play is critical for children to reach their full potential.

Leigh Ingham – Labour (Stafford)

I am concerned that there are not enough accessible parks, and that those that are accessible are not similarly so for neurodiverse children. To truly cater for SEND children, both with physical disabilities and neurodiversity, playground design must go beyond a sticking-plaster approach. We need well thought out, fit-for-purpose equipment that prioritises sensory play and safety. That includes sensory equipment items that are both functional and inviting, and spaces that are designed to reduce overstimulation.

Helen Maguire – Liberal Democrats (Epsom and Ewell)

As policymakers, we often focus on the physical education of our children, but playgrounds are about so much more than exercise. They are where children learn to navigate risk, build relationships and develop the resilience that will serve them for life. However, according to the 2024 green space index, 2.3 million children in Britain under the age of nine, which is nearly one third, live more than a 10-minute walk from their nearest playground. That is a stark indicator of a growing play crisis in our country.

Playgrounds are vital spaces where children explore their world and themselves. Through play, they develop social skills, creativity and cognitive abilities. They learn to assess and embrace risk, make decisions and form friendships. Playgrounds are incubators for resilience, teaching children the skills to thrive in a challenging world.