Latest News from Fair Play for Children about Play, Children's Rights and Health, Youth work and much more.

News update:

We've just posted our Response to the Government's Fair Play Consultation about the way forward for Children's Play.

In effect, we've welcomed it as the best-ever attempt by a Government to get to grips with the needs children have re: their play in the UK.

Of course, we feel this is "a good start" (especially compared to what has gone before) BUT - as you may imagine - we feel more can be said and done:

  • Our main concern is about resources, and a Fair Deal for Our Children - the key to our response is an understanding of the implications of Article 31.2 which talks of "appropriate and equal opportunities" for children to share in the nation's cultural, recreational and leisure resources - £225 million is fine - for starters!
  • We have called on the Government to "go the full mile" on traffic calming - 10mph limits in many residential streets, taking the logic of Reduce Speed to Save Lives to its proper conclusion - at 10mph, no ones dies and few are injured - and who needs to go more than that speed in most residential streets.
  • We want the Government to encourage the creation of Community Play Partnerships, with children at the centre of decision-making - we see this as not only beneficial for their play needs but also as a learning route into community involvement in later life.
  • We also remind the Government that deprivation is not confined to inner cities, that there is play deprivation in many areas and that, whilst we welcome the 100 Adventure Playgrounds that will be built, we also believe that a scheme to create 200 mobile play projects would enable a quality play resource to be introduced into several hundred neighbourhoods on a regular basis.

Incidentally, there has been a very good article posted in last Saturday's Guardian - you can link to it at our web site:  'Boys and Girls Don't Come Out to Play' - plus several pages of reader comments including three from us!

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