Bringing Back Play

Eugene Minogue, Executive Director of Play England, wants play to be at the heart of policy-making. He is calling for the government to publish a new, national play strategy and also introduce play sufficiency legislation

Earlier this year, Play England published its manifesto, could you outline the main aims of it? It’s primarily aimed at changing the landscape in England around the introduction of play sufficiency legislation. Wales has had such legislation for a while and Scotland has introduced it too – so England is lagging behind.

What we want to do is to follow the good work that Wales and Scotland have done and build out from it. We are looking at wider opportunities, particularly with the government’s legislative agenda, such as in relation to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. That’s how we see that play sufficiency could be introduced as a ‘no-cost’ policy ask.

What are the main aims and targets that Play England has set itself for 2025? This year (2024) has been a period of reflection and “re-imagineering” (from “imagination” and “engineering” – implementing creative ideas in practical form) for Play England. In short, we assessed where we are as an organisation and where the play sector is. The next stage is now to reposition Play England to reflect the current context in landscape and to put us in a high state of preparedness to meaningfully take forwards our emerging strategy. As part of that – and to ensure Play England remains at the forefront of ‘good governance’ – we also undertook an independent governance review in the past 12 months, which was conducted by the Sport + Recreation Alliance (SRA). Our focus next year (2025) will be on adopting our strategy, which we’re looking to do as early in the year as possible. There will be three key areas: spaces and places, the workforce and play provision. Wrapped around that will be how we are going to change as an organisation (PlayEngland) in order to deliver the strategy over the next 10 years. As part of the governance review we will be recruiting new independent board members in 2025. We are also doing some early implementation work now – such as the review of the National Occupational Standards for Playwork

(NOS). It’s all about developing our workforce and of professional standards so that we have a highly- qualified, competent and dedicated workforce. The work is being done by The UK Playwork NOS Consortium, which comprises of Play England, Play Wales, Play Scotland, PlayBoard NI and The Playwork Foundation. It is expected that the final NOS will be approved and published in summer 2025.

We’re also working with various national partners on how we can ensure we get play back up on the national agenda. For this, we held a play sufficiency webinar and we had more than 120 people from local government and Active Partnerships register for it. So we are gearing up our work on how we support local authorities and active partnerships to implement the principles of play sufficiency in the current absence of national legislation in England. All of that is happening on a local level.

There are also emerging collaborations with the likes of Sport England and Active Travel England, amongst others, around embedding play principles in their work.

Ultimately, in 2025, what we’d like to see is for the new government to introduce play sufficiency legislation and a new national play strategy. There hasn’t been any play strategy in England since 2008 – and that was something that Play England developed with the last Labour government.

We think that the current government could publish a new play strategy under their legislative programme, particularly – but not exclusively – via the Children’s Wellbeing Bill. Announced in the King’s Speech, the bill aims to put children and their wellbeing at the centre of the education and children’s social care systems, and “make changes so they are safe, healthy, happy and treated fairly”.

So 2025 will be the year we will really look to mobilise our strategy and to get that forward.

Has Play England had any discussions with the new Labour government, regarding play, yet? Yes, we have – and we had some discussions prior to the election too. We also published an open letter, outlining our main message, which is that it is vitally important that the new government urgently address the decline in children’s play over recent decades.

The current planning system in England fails to protect, enhance, or provide spaces and places that support children’s health, development, and wellbeing. In too many towns and cities, traffic-dominated neighbourhoods, low quality housing layouts, inadequate facilities, and poorly designed housing estates, along with a lack of parks and green spaces, harm children’s wellbeing, undermine their quality of life and deprive them of critical infrastructure that they need.

We’ve also written to the new chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, asking them to finish the inquiry on children and young people and the built environment, which was started prior to the election.

In addition, we’ve responded to the government’s consultation on the national planning policy framework and the 10-year health strategy. We’ve also had informal discussions with various officials from the likes of the DCMS and the Department for Education (DfE) around play and re-establishing it as a societal norm.

So we’ve had some positive discussions and there have been warm responses, but we’re now moving into the stage where the government really needs to bring that into meaningful practice.

We are already starting to see some wins, too. Very recently, the government announced that it will prohibit smoking in playgrounds and outside schools. That is something we directly called for in our manifesto and thankfully the government has responded.

The current planning system in England fails to protect, enhance, or provide spaces and places that support children’s health, development, and wellbeing

Which departments do you see as being the most relevant for play going forward - and why? The four key departments are the DCMS, the DfE, the department for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Transport. But they aren’t the only departments.

Children and young people and play cut across all elements of government. We are, after all, talking about our future generations here. For children to be able to play freely will benefit their cognitive, physical and mental wellbeing. It also develops resilience and prepares people for future life.

So it’s very much a cross-governmental topic and play doesn’t fit neatly in one place. That’s why we need the importance of play to be understood in every area of government.

Eugene Minogue provides a SWOT analysis on the play sector

Strengths

Play has something unique, when compared to the likes of sport and physical activity – in that is that play is universal. Every child and every human being has played and plays.

That’s very different to sport or exercise, which can be polarising for some. Whether through previously bad experiences or limitations in the ability to take part. With play, a vast majority have very fond memories of play and it’s universal – it’s something everyone has done in some way.

And play isn’t just about the physical aspect, there is a creative side to it too, whether that be music, literacy or the arts, for example. You can play in a variety of different ways – with your family around the Christmas table, out in the park with your friends, or, indeed, something to do with sports.

So play is unique and we need to remind people how valuable play is for children. It has something to offer every aspect of society.

Weaknesses

Play has, societally, been “de-normed”. Unfortunately, a play-based childhood started to decline in the 1980s, a process which accelerated in the 1990s. Arguably, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a breaking point for children’s play.

We now have a generation growing up who not only don’t have the freedom to play in the way their parents or grandparents did, but also we have a generation of children who don’t know HOW to play freely. We don’t have the same free range of movement, we don’t have many games that are being passed down and we don’t have the time, space and opportunity to play. Our lives are so busy and structured these days that play has been marginalised. Take schools, for example, where playtime has been squeezed and is often the thing that is taken away from children as a form of punishment - which is wrong. We need to protect children’s right to play and encourage them to play in all aspects of life.

Societally, we’ve lost sight of play and we have reached a default point where things like “no ball games” signs mean that playgrounds are the only place where play can happen.

Opportunities

They are huge - especially with the government’s current legislative agenda. If we were to get play sufficiency legislation and a new national play strategy, that would be transformational for our children, families and caregivers. It would mean that we value play and give children the voice that they need within society.

It would mean that they would have a valid voice in the planning system, making sure they are fundamental to the way spaces and places are designed for them. Simply put, we have the opportunity to give children their childhood back.

Threats

The status quo. Where we are is damning. It’s an oxymoron that we have to call for national legislation to protect children’s rights and freedom to play. It’s an utterly bizarre situation.

Culturally and societally, we need to take a look at ourselves and where we are. We built the cultures – and the urban environments in which we live in – solely through an adult lens. We need to fundamentally change that. We need to make sure children are heard and that they have the spaces and opportunities to play.

If we don’t we will endanger the mental and physical health of our children, which is in a worrying state as it is. We have children growing up who are not physically literate and are struggling with their mental health. Play can play a huge part in addressing that balance.