Webinar: Play Sufficiency - The policy context and in practice

Overview:

This webinar was held on the 7 November 11-12.30 and was for Local Authorities and Active Partnerships in England. 

It aimed to provide an overview of play sufficiency - the current national policy context, and how it can be put into meaningful practice - as Leeds City Council have done. 

Watch the recording of the webinar and review the slide deck (pdf)

Synopsis:

As you will know from your own childhood, play is vital for all children. It is the main way children enjoy their daily lives, make friends, and learn about the world around them. Through play children develop social, physical, and cognitive skills, creativity, cultural awareness, and resilience. They learn to manage and benefit from risks, make decisions, and develop their identities. Play is essential for happy, healthy, capable, and resilient children.

However, children today are experiencing many barriers to play. 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. As the freedom and opportunities to play have declined, so has children's physical and mental health as a result.

Many of the problems set out above have multiple causes. However, foremost amongst them are the failures in the current planning system. There are nearly 12 million children living in England, who are all but ignored within the national planning policy framework (NPPF). For example, the 2021 NPPF makes only one single mention of children. Currently, no other planning guidance addresses children explicitly. By contrast, bats and newts are amongst the species covered by national planning guidance.

Therefore, Play England are calling for meaningful change within England’s planning system as part of the government’s legislative programme, through the introduction of play sufficiency legislation (as set out in our manifesto). This would ensure that all children, young people, and families have access to enough time, space, opportunity, and permission to play and recreation throughout all aspects of their daily lives. It would protect, provide, and enhance opportunities for play and recreation at home, at school, in parks and public spaces.

In the absence of national statutory guidance, we will take a look at how Leeds City Council have meaningfully implemented play sufficiency locally. 

Leeds are leading the way by being the first local authority in England to commit to delivering an action plan, designed to optimise play opportunities for children and young people across the entire city.

Understanding the importance of play to wellbeing, and how children and young people can be negatively affected by a ‘poverty of experience’, the council has committed to obtain a better understanding children’s experience of play.

The Leeds play sufficiency project is an ongoing process of research and action to assess, improve and protect children’s opportunities for play. This has led to the development of nine strategic play priorities for Leeds to help improve opportunities to play. Priorities include the creation of streets that are safe, welcoming and encourage children’s play, as well as improving access to nature-based play environments.

A new cross council approach has also been pioneered, aiming to embed play sufficiency principles in the heart of decision making across the council, championing the rights of children and young people to access play.

Colleagues will share their knowledge, experience, insight, and learnings on the implementation of play sufficiency locally.