Play Action Fair Play for Children - New Year 2006
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Play Action
Fair Play for Children
Excellence in Play:
David Lammy MP (Govt.Minister) at
recent London Awards for Best Adventure
Playground: Somerford A.P.E
New Year 2006
PlayAction New Year2006
Putting Play on the
Map
The Play England Project
Project Summary and Broad Aims
The Play England Project is a proposal from the Children's
Play Council, under the aegis of the National Children's
Bureau (which will be the management and accountable
body) in response to a solicited application to the Big
Lottery Fund's Children's Play Programme. This is a short
narrative summary of the business plan to design, build in this Edition ....
and implement a regionally based, sustainable and effec-
tive play support and development infrastructure for
England. Putting Play on the Map
Lottery Money Proposals for Play England
The Play England Project will work alongside and with Government Fails
existing regional play and other relevant networks. The Children’s Rights Targets
structure will have the necessary capacity and expertise to Report says 16 out 78 targets met
support local agencies in the public and voluntary sectors What Does Risk in Play
of the children's play arena. Initially this will be primarily to Mean to Children?
enable local play partnerships to engage with each other Recent Paper by Mark Gladwin
and their communities in the planning, adoption and imple-
mentation of cross-cutting play strategies for submission to
New Bichard Vetting and
the Big Lottery Fund (BIG)'s Children's Play Programme Barring Scheme
Child Proection Proposals
(CPP).
Play in Redbridge
In the longer term it will work with these local partnerships The Play Needs of a London Borough
to promote the long-term strategic and sustainable devel- plus News on Play,
opment of play provision as a free service to children and and of course
young people. A key to this will be the twin aim of promot-
ing a long-term positive change in attitude within local
tHE bACK pAGE
authorities and regional and other agencies as to the
importance and value of children's play and the status of its
provision. The project will promote excellence in children's PlayAction is the journal of Fair
play provision and in the planning, design and maintenance Play for Children Association and Fair Play
for Children Charitable Trust Ltd (reg
of places to play within public and open space.
charity 292134), and is made possible by
a partnership between Premier Promotions
Both the strategic enabling programme and the broader, and the Trust. We thank the Contributors,
longer-term aims and objectives of the project will be all who provided information. Unless
within the framework and consistent with the policy objec- stated, views expressed in this journal are
not the policy of Fair Play for Children.
tives of the CPP. The project will aim to improve and devel-
Articles, comments, letters etc to The
op children and young people's free local play spaces and Editor, PlayAction, 35 Lyon Street, Bognor
opportunities throughout England, according to identified Regis PO21 1YZ, Tel: 0845-330 7635,
need. It will also aim for the advancement of innovative e-mail: fairplay@arunet.co.uk
Children and Play
practice in specific areas of children's play provision and
play spaces within the public realm: in planning, design and
COMMENT:
delivery. Fair Play welcomes
new role for Children’s
Project Strategy
Play Council.
Working closely with existing regional structures and part-
ners in the play sector and centrally managed and sup- We have decided to publish as
ported by the National Children's Bureau, the project will our lead story CPC’s summary of
grow a new regional capacity for the work of the Children's the Big Lottery application,
Play Council (CPC). The project will give CPC and its region- because it represents a major
al partners in the play sector a new national support and opportunity for play in England to
development capacity. It will, under the name Play take important steps, in terms of
England, seek to establish the long-term need for such a better implementation of the
capacity, and such a capability, as an essential resource to Right to Play.
local authorities and their partners in the delivery of an
essential range of services and environments to children, That this initiative is overdue is
their families and communities. no reflection on the CPC or its
member organisations. We were
New Activities the national body which, in 1986,
pushed for such a body as the
The project will offer support, development, information, CPC (then called the National
campaigning, policy, and strategic enabling services to local Voluntary Council for Children’s
area play partnerships. Where these do not exist it will Play) and we have been loyal
engage in a partnership and capacity building programme to members since, even if we have
create and sustain them. not always been happy with its
direction.
The project will encourage and support local authorities to
take the lead on developing play strategies for these part- But this initiative is the right
nerships within the terms of the CPP and its strategy guid- path, and the choice of the name
ance. The project will also actively promote the long-term ‘Play England’ for this project is
strategic growth of play provision in other ways. The new rather significant ... If we look at
regional centres established by the project will promote play Wales, Northern Ireland and
within other (and county wide) policy agendas, processes Scotland, all three nations have
and fora: the Local Area Agreements, Joint Area Reviews, their own national play organisa-
Comprehensive Performance Assessments, and other mech- tions, Play Wales etc, and we can
anisms that will be important for the formulation and adop- see the strides made by tose
tion of policy and funding commitments for play provision. bodies where they are recognised
officially as the lead bodies for
The regional centres will also provide information on good Play.
practice, especially inclusive practice and accessible design.
It will develop and disseminate models for evaluation, When we argued for the CPC to
impact assessments, case studies, guidance on consultation be set up, we also argued for a
and engagement with children and young people, engaging National Play Bureau, which had
parents and communities, marketing and promotion, and so many of the aims now being
celebrating success. promoted by the Play England
project.
Strengthening and Growing Existing Activities
In our submission to Frank
Children and Play
The plan includes a strengthening of CPC's current national Dobson MP’s review, we
role, supported by key NCB departments, commensurate argued for the funding to be allo-
with the new operation. This will both assist in the profile cated to Local Play
raising that is intrinsic to the success of the regional devel- Partnerships so it is with great
opment and enable the regional structure to draw on a interest that we see this title spe-
range of key central resources. The activities developed cifically mentioned in letters sent
within CPC's central team will be those associated with: - in November to all local authority
· representing the play sector to government, the chief executives by the Big
media and other agencies; Lottery. The letter indicated that
· researching, developing and advocating policies for each area has been allocated a
play; sum by the BL for development
· campaigning for children's play; of children’s play space depen-
· promoting good practice in play development and dent on numbers of children and
provision; also issues such as deprivation.
· staging national conferences and events; and It asked each autjority to
· producing information, policy briefings, good practice respond with initial expressions
publications and other resources. of interest and also emphasised
the value of local play partner-
Regional Capacity and Partnership Building ships. The closing date was in
January 2006, so not much time
The project will involve networking and building partner- to waste! It also mentioned the
ships towards identifying or establishing the specific capac- need for local play policies and
ity, structures and relationships for play support and devel- strategies - we can see some
opment within the different regions. It will aim to build frantic dusting off of old papers
consensus in each region and to identify the appropriate to find out when each authority
and effective distinctions between the roles and responsi- last debated the issues!
bilities of a national agency and regional agencies / partner-
ships. It is important that Children are
at the heart of decision-making
There will be a programme of networking, partnership and about the development of their
consensus building to identify or establish the right capacity, own play space. This has to take
structures and relationships for play support and develop- on board that this cannot just be
ment within each region. This objective will aim to build 14-18 year olds speaking for
upon the CPC alliance towards strong, mutually beneficial younger kids, it has to be a pro-
relationships between the project and existing agencies and cess that enables the younger
their work programmes. It will aim to create a consensus in children to speak in their own
each region as to the most effective and appropriate strat- voices. If this is to be a genuine
egy and relationships for the long-term success of a region- process of inclusion, then local
al structure. authority-wide areas are too
large - play partnerships with
The project will develop an agreed process and criteria for active and leading involvement
devolving, as appropriate, those roles and responsibilities by choldren must be based on
that are initially centrally managed, to a regional (and catchments they can understand.
regionally governed) structure or partnership. Alongside This whole process has to avoid
this, we will proceed with the partnership building work pro- ‘Glib Talk’ and massaging of kid’s
gramme in each region with a view to entering into mate- views, especially where there is
rial arrangements for the right combination of partners to any temptation for local authori-
take on appropriate project objectives when the time is ties to cash-in in order to pro-
right. This 'devolution' will be subject to certain criteria, yet mote their own agendas or to
Children and Play
to be established, that will test the robustness of any such
arrangements.
Curriculum
Targets Affect
National Partnerships Children's Playtime
As well as the essential regional partnership building pro- Recent research carried out by
gramme, the project will seek to build upon CPC's alliance the University of Plymouth has
with national agencies and the various relationships it has found that young children may
cultivated with many of them by, where consistent with our be missing out on 'pretend'
strategic aims and objectives (above), developing new stra- games like pirates and spacemen
tegic and, where feasible, operational partnerships. Some due to the demands of the
key agencies (eg Skillsactive and Kidsactive) are on the CPC school curriculum. The project,
executive committee, which has steered the planning pro- led by DR Sue Rogers of the
cess. Discussions have also been held with key national University of Plymouth and fund-
agencies (IDeA, Groundwork) at various stages in the devel- ed by the Economic and
opment of the plans. The project includes a specific joint Research Council (ESRC), found
programme with CABE Space, considered to be a key that reception classes were not
national partner because of its key strategic role and exper- always designed to meet the
tise in open space design and management, and particu- needs of four and five year olds.
larly its good practice guidance and strategic enabling pro- "Children of this age learn to
gramme for open space strategies. make friends as well as use their
imagination through role play,
Management and Capacity said Dr Rogers. She added. "We
know that they are capable of
It is proposed that the project be managed by a new senior sustained and complex imagina-
management post reporting to the Chief Executive of NCB, tive play and that capturing and
supported by management posts in Policy and Research, engaging their interest is essen-
Communications and Business Development. There will be tial. Unfortunately, pressures on
an assistant director for national development, all supported time and space, as well as the
by strengthened internal support departments. Each region need to teach literacy, means
will have a manager and a development and communica- that playing as shops, pirates
tions team. and hospitals is difficult to fit into
the timetable."
Exit Strategy
The researchers made a total of
The intention is for the project to demonstrate over its dura- 71 visits to groups of four year
tion the importance of a broadly strategic national agency in olds in schools from three con-
promoting children's play. Play England will, in this plan, trasting areas in the South West
become a long-term part of the strategic infrastructure for of England. A total of 144 chil-
public policy and public services in England. It will establish dren, six teachers and six class-
a range of strategic partnerships, nationally and regionally, room assistants took part in the
that both embed the work of the project within the fabric of project. As well as observing
support for local authorities and their partners, and enable how both indoor and outdoor
CPC and its partners to take advantage of opportunities pre- play was organised in the three
sented by key funding streams and initiatives into the future. schools, the researchers asked
Adrian Voce, Director, Children's Play Council the children about their favourite
games and used drawings, sto-
Government fails to meet ries, role play scenarios and pho-
Children’s Rights and Play
Children's Rights Targets tographs to build a picture
of their perspective on role play.
According to a recent report published by the Children's
Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) the UK Government has "Listening to children's voices on
failed to safeguard many areas of children's rights. In use of space and lay out could
October 2002, the United Nations Committee on the Rights raise the importance of play in
of the Child issued the UK with 78 recommendations, to the curriculum and reduce poten-
make law, policy and practice compatible with the Convention tial tensions between children
on the Rights of the Child, so far significant progress has and adults", explained Dr
been made on just 16 in the last year. Rogers. The project findings
revealed a need for more out-
The Alliance has broadly welcomed the Government' pro- door play spaces so that children
gramme of initiatives to transform children's services, put- would have more choice and
ting the child at the centre, and the appointment of England's control over materials, locations
first Children's Commissioner, but claims the Government and playmates. According to Dr
has torn up the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Rogers it is "important that chil-
for juvenile offenders and young asylum seekers. The report dren are able to play for sus-
highlights a number of areas of concern. tained periods without interven-
tions from adults." The research
findings reveal that most children
Juvenile Justice. thought the purpose of pretend
play was 'for learning things'.
· The UK locks up more children than most other
However they liked playing with
industrialised countries - just under 10,000 in 2004, the
friends and 'pretending' and dis-
equivalent of ten secondary schools.
liked 'too much noise.' The
· The UK has one of the lowest ages of criminal
research also revealed strong
responsibility in the world. Last year the European Social
gender roles in pretend play.
Rights Committee declared the UK to be in breach of article
Amongst both boys and girls the
17 of the European Social Charter because the age of crim-
favourite game was 'castles',
inal responsibility is "manifestly too low."
their drawings were strikingly dif-
· Last year two children hung themselves whilst in cus-
ferent with the boys pictures
tody and a third died after being restrained at the privately
focused on fighting and peoples
run Rainsbrook Training Centre. The boy aged 15 died after
heads being chopped off, whilst
being restrained by three members of staff. Since 1990,
the girls focused on princesses
there have been 29 child deaths in custody; there has never
and mums and dads and often
been public enquiry.
embellished their pictures with
· The Government has sanctioned the use of contro-
colour and detail to make it look
versial 'distraction' techniques for use by staff in the four
prettier. Girls tended towards
privately run prisons. The techniques which involve a blow
nurturing/domestic roles. Boys
to the nose, bending the thumb back or a sharp blow to the
on the other hand, preferred to
ribs have been used a total of 768 times last year resulting
be robbers, superheroes or
in 51 injuries. Staffs in local authority secure children's
policemen in predominantly
homes are prohibited from using painful restraint.
action roles, despite the teachers
· Children issued with Anti Social Behaviour orders
efforts of 'de gender' role-play.
(ASBOS) last year started to ring child line because of stig-
ma, anxiety and the threat of custody.
A key observation of the study
advises Dr Rogers is that most
The report notes that the UK Government has retained a children of this age are having
legal defence allowing parents to carry on hitting children so their first expeience out of theChildren’s Rights and Play
long as they do not injure them. Last year the European home environment, The
Social Rights Committee declared the UK to be in breach of importance of role play is learn-
article 17 of the European Social Charter because children ing to socialise, to interact with
are not afforded same legal protection from assault as other children as well as to
adults. experiment with language and
develop the intellect."
Education and Expulsion
Recent Research reveals
· In 2003/04 there were 9,880 permanent exclusions Childcare reduces stress
from primary, secondary and special needs schools. levels for kids with working
· Local authorities provided full time education to only mums
half of those excluded.
· Boys' account for 80 per cent of permanent exclu- New research has shown low
sions each year. job satisfaction in working moth-
· Children from Irish Traveller families have the highest ers' increases the stress levels of
rate of permanent exclusion - 66 in every 10,000 compared their children, but spending lon-
to the national rate of 14 in every 10,000. ger in childcare can help over-
· Pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are come these effects. In a recent
seven times more likely to be excluded than children without study involving more than fifty
SEN. nursery school researchers found
double the levels of the stress
Child Poverty hormone cortisol in children
whose mothers found there jobs
· Three and a half million children continue to live in less rewarding, or left them feel-
poverty in the UK. ing emotionally exhausted, than
· In 2002 the Committee on the Rights of the Child those who reported higher levels
urged the UK Government to use "maximum available of job satisfaction. Cortisol is a
resources" to end child poverty. steroid hormone, which regulates
· Last year the UN said the UK must adopt "pro poor" blood pressure, and cardiovascu-
policies if it is to meet its goals of eradicating child poverty lar function, immune function as
by 2019. well as controlling the bodies use
of proteins, carbohydrates and
Asylum seekers and refugees. fats. Cortisol secretion increases
in response to stress experience,
· Information gathered under the Freedom of whether physical (such as illness,
Information Act showed that the longest period of detention trauma, surgery or temperature
at Tinsely House, near to Gatwick Airport exceeded five extremes) or psychological. It is
weeks. a normal and essential response
· According to the Home Office the provision of educa- without which we would not be
tion for children of asylum seekers is neither "practicable able to function in everyday life.
nor necessary." However it is when these levels
· Last year the Council of Europe Human Rights remain high or become disrupted
Commissioner condemned the use of detention without over a period of time that they
judicial scrutiny, and urged a raft of reforms to counter bias may have consequences for
against asylum seekers in the applications and appeals pro- health. It is important to pro-
cess. mote healthy adaptation to
· Asylum seekers are still not entitled to full levels of stress in children and good quali-
benefits (they get 30 percent less) ty childcare is one way of doing
this.Children’s Rights and Play
· Asylum seeking mothers are to be excluded from the
new Healthy Start Scheme, providing mothers of babies and According to the research, car-
young children with vouchers, which they can exchange for ried out by Dr Julie Turner-
fresh fruit and vegetables and milk. Cobb, a health psychologist and
senior lecturer at the University
Commenting on the UK Governments failures Caroline of Bath, Dr Christina
Willow the national Co-ordinator of CRAE: "The Chryssanthopoulou from the
Government is quite rightly telling everyone that works with University of Kent and Dr David
children to take all action necessary to prevent abuse and Jessop, a neuroimmunologist at
that 'every child matters.' Yet it has authorised deliberate the University of Bristol, placing
violence against children in custody, it has introduced legis- the children of mothers who find
lation that could separate asylum-seeking children from there jobs stressful, or emotion-
their parents, and it has directed courts to name and shame ally unrewarding would signifi-
children. It has still not established a public inquiry into any cantly help to reduce the levels
child death in custody (there have been 29 since 1990) and of stress experienced by their
it has ignored international and national pressure to stop children. The researchers also
detaining asylum-seeking families. The Convention on the found that children from families
Rights of the Child is clear that juvenile offenders and asy- that were highly expressive or
lum seeking children have the right to special protection." reserved also exhibited higher
than average cortisol levels.
She went on to add. "The UK is the fourth largest economy
in the world, it has not been directly affected by war for six To carry out the study, the
decades; and it has a children's workforce of four million researchers measured cortisol
people. This is about political will not capacity. It's time our levels by taking samples of saliva
laws and culture reflected the fact that every child has in the morning and evening from
human rights." 56 children aged three to four
years old. They also surveyed
Jan Cosgrove, National Secretary of Fair Play for Children: mothers about their workplace
"This report demonstrates, yet again, the huge gap between conditions and home life for six
stated Government policy on Children and their rights and months. The report published in
actual practice. Many children live in neighbourhoods, which the journal Development
are sterile, and hostile, with no real play value or scope, Psychobiology (Monday 21st
which is detrimental to their health and development. November 2005), suggests that
Children's rights are constantly over ridden for adult ends. greater support is needed for
The only reliable guarantee of those rights for UK children working mothers to help improve
would be a Children's Rights Act, incorporating the UN con- their job satisfaction and
vention into UK domestic law." increase the availability of afford-
able childcare options. Dr Julie
Turner-Cobb said: "Spending
more time in childcare makes a
Fair Play’s PlayAction Guides now big difference to the stress levels
cover over 24 topics relating to Play and in children whose mothers have
low job satisfaction. It can help
to the Right to Play. They can be protect children from the effects
viewed on-line at www.arunet.co.uk/fair- of their mother's low job quality
and emotional exhaustion.
play/ or downloaded from there in PDF Ensuring that mothers of young
format, or print copy from our office children have good support in
the workplace is essential forChildren and Play
What does risk in supporting both mothers
and their children." In addition
Dr David Jessop, from the
play mean to chil- University of Bristol said.
"Improving the job satisfaction of
working mothers means that
dren? they are less stressed them-
selves, and extending the avail-
ability of affordable and ade-
Mark Gladwin, Play Services Officer, Bradford Early Years & quate childcare may not only
Childcare Service (This article is taken from a paper pre- improve the quality of life for the
sented at the 16th World Conference of the International mothers, but in doing so may
Play Association, Berlin, 18-22 July 2005) improve the long term health of
their children."
Risk-taking and playwork practice
Kids wins £1.4 million
Readers of PlayAction will be well aware of debates in the Big Lottery funding for
media and among playworkers about children, play and risk. pioneering inclusion
Children's opportunities for outdoor play have become project
restricted through excessive risk-aversion, and they are suf-
fering as a result. The concern for safety, paradoxically, Kids the national charity and
exposes children to more risk: physical ill-health through leading service provider for all
inactivity, emotional ill-health through frustration, and lack disabled children, young people
of coping skills through inexperience. As Lindon has put it, and their families is delighted to
(1999), children may be "too safe for their own good". One announce that it has awarded
task for playwork is thus to enable children to take risks in over £1.4 million in funding over
situations where serious harm is unlikely. Documents like three years by the Big Lottery
Best Play (NPFA 2000) and the Playwork Occupational Young People's Fund National
Standards (SkillsActive 2005) require playworkers to bal- Grants Programme. This money
ance risk and play value. But oddly, little attention has been will be used to create a Young
paid to how children themselves see risk. A recent research People's Inclusion Network
study of children at an adventure playground tries to go (YP-in) to give disabled young
some way towards filling this gap. people in England an national
voice on their inclusion and lei-
sure and is the largest grant to
A theory of children, play and risk be made under the first round of
awards.
The study adopts the "tribal child" model of James Jenks &
Prout (1998), which stresses how children create meaning The Audit Commission in 2003
for their own childhoods through play. For the purposes of reported a national shortage of
the study, play is seen as arousal-seeking behaviour (Ellis, inclusive and specialist leisure
1973) with strong elements of simulation and intrinsic moti- and recreational facilities for
vation (Garvey, 1991). The evolutionary importance of Britain's 700,000 disabled chil-
arousal is confirmed by evidence from authors such as dren and young people.
Huttenlocher (1990) about the plasticity of the infant brain Inaccessible venues, lack of
and the importance of environmental stimuli in developing transport and unwelcome or anx-
neural connections. This need explains the counter-intuitive ious attitudes mean that disabled
practice of deliberate risk-taking. The more that society teenagers often find themselvesChildren and Play
tries to eliminate risk through safety policies, the more we socially isolate and exclud-
feel the need to take risks. By balancing risk avoidance and ed. YP-in will provide disabled
risk-taking, we try to maintain our ideal balance between teenagers with a platform to
predictability (safe but dull) and unpredictability (exciting communicate successfully with
but scary). Douglas & Wildavsky (1982) have suggested the wider world about their lei-
that there are four kinds of people when it comes to manag- sure needs, also enabling them
ing risk: hierarchists, egalitarians, individualists and fatal- to meet, make friends and be
ists. "ordinary" teenagers.
Hierarchists are people who conform strongly to rules. They The project will be managed by
deal with risk by following official procedures. Since proce- Joanna Ryam, Kids' National
dures often stress safety, children in this group are unlikely Development Director, who
to be keen risk takers. spearheaded the three month
consultation and development
Egalitarians show strong group identification and emphasize process supported by the Big
solidarity at the expense of official rules. Such children are Lottery Fund. "We are thrilled to
likely to engage in risk-taking in conformity to a peer group, be one of the first national
but are less likely to take risks on their own. Individualists organisations to receive a Big
are independent-minded people, willing to defy both official Lottery Young People's Fund
rules and group solidarity to make their own decisions on grant. For the young disabled
risk. Individualist children are the likeliest to engage in soli- people Kids works with, it means
tary risk-taking of the kind described by Hughes (2001) as the chance to turn their very real
"deep play". needs to better and more leisure
opportunities into reality. It is
Fatalists submit passively to external control without feeling also a tremendous acknowledge-
any commitment either to rules or to group solidarity. and ment of all the great services
take no steps either to avoid risk or to manage it. Children Kids has been running with dis-
like this in a play setting may be "passive-aggressive", abled teenagers for many years.
seemingly indifferent to what happens to them. This is all about young disabled
people having a voice and being
The field study: children, play and heard. It will help tackle the
social isolation so many of them
risk at an adventure playground face. Three years from now on
we want to ensure that no lei-
Fieldwork was carried out during the summer of 2003 with sure provider - private, statutory,
a group of children aged 8 to 10 years at an adventure play- or voluntary - will be able to say
ground given the fictitious name of the Quarry. The aims of that they don't know how to
the study were to examine these questions: make sure young disabled people
can enjoy their programmes and
· What kinds of play did the children themselves think
were risky?
· What kind of feelings accompanied risky play? Why Don’t You Write
· What did risk-seeking play actually look like to an ????
observer? Send letters, articles etc -
· What seemed to be the motives for children's playful order of preference:
risk-taking?
fairplay@arunet.co.uk
Children were interviewed about their experience of "good Fair Play, Freepost,
scary play", which most claimed to take part in. They were Bognor Regis PO21 1BWChildren and Play
also asked to comment on imaginary "play stories" about Early years: Sure
different sorts of risky situations. Children showed they
could evaluate both real and fictional situations using similar
Start blamed for project
ideas and vocabulary. Analysis of the interviews suggested closure
four dimensions for analysis of risk-taking in play:
A charity has blamed "the Sure
Content: Is the risk mainly social (eg being told off by an Start effect" for the closure of
adult) or mainly physical (eg jumping off the bike shed)? under-fives drop-in sessions pop-
ular with single parents, young
Context: Does the risk-taking depend on being carried out mothers and asylum-seeking or
in company - is it sociable - or can it just as well be soli- refugee families. The Welcare
tary? Community Project, based in
Kilburn, London, says it was
Motive: Is the motive for risk-taking mainly instrumental or forced to close its Toddledom
mainly intrinsic? sessions in September because
of lack of funding. The sessions,
Affect: Are the accompanying emotions mainly reluctant or which began in 2000, flourished
mainly enthusiastic? following a lottery grant and
expanded to offer a wide range
To see how this model could work, let's imagine two con- of opportunities including literacy
trasting examples. sessions, parenting advice and a
creche. They won praise from
Child A takes a risk of punishment by an adult, with misgiv- the likes of Labour peer and for-
ings, for an external motive, under pressure from peers. mer Sure Start minister Baroness
The content is social, the context is sociable, the motive is Ashton. But when the lottery
instrumental and the affect is reluctant. Let's call this "con- money ran out, the charity strug-
ventional risk-taking". Child A, for Douglas & Wildavsky, is gled to keep it going.
an Egalitarian.
Chair of trustees, Grizelda
Child B takes a risk of physical injury, on her/his own, just Tyler, said the charity was
for the sake of it, and with excitement. The content is advised to apply for Sure Start
physical, the context is solitary, the motive is intrinsic and funding but could only get a lim-
the affect is enthusiastic. Let's call this "committed risk- ited amount because it was tied
taking". Douglas & Wildavsky would class Child B as an to people living in the nearby
Individualist. Sure Start area. She said "the
Sure Start effect" was squeezing
Observation at the Quarry suggested that Child A is in action out many voluntary providers.
a lot more often than Child B. But it also showed some- "The traditional funders for
thing more subtle and interesting. Here are two examples under fives believe this is now
of play in the sandpit. being catered for by Sure Start,"
she said.
1. Terry (age 12) is buried in the sandpit by three small The Government has said local
children who tease and mock-threaten him…he pretends to authorities should work with the
whimper and protest. voluntary and private sectors and
is channelling Sure Start funding
2. The children are throwing sand ballista-style, using plastic through councils from next year.
spades. Gradually this develops into a team game with one This expectation is contained in
side throwing, the other side dodging, taking turns. "Bombs the Childcare Bill, which is cur-
away" is the cry. All this is taking place in view of staff. The rently progressing throughChildren and Play
senior playworker comes out and tells the children to stop, Parliament. However, organ-
but as soon as he returns inside, the game resumes. Both isations like the Pre-school
sides dig bunkers in preparation for battle: one team lends Learning Alliance and National
their opponents a spade to dig with. Day Nurseries Association fear
voluntary and private providers
Behaviour that, in a different context, could be genuinely could still lose out without strict-
risky, is here stripped of risk by the play frame. An older er monitoring of partnership
child burying a younger child in sand and threatening him, working. Tyler said councils
would be bullying: reverse the roles we see play with the needed more funding to enable
idea of risk, without any real risk. In the sand battle, chil- them to work with the voluntary
dren run the real social risk of punishment by staff, which sector and called for improved
they manage in an "egalitarian" way by strength of num- application processes and clearer
bers. When it comes to physical risk, however, the children information for voluntary groups
enact ostensibly risky behaviour - throwing sand - so as to on accessing funding streams.
minimise actual risk. Children are not taking risks: they are Source: Children Now
playing with the notion of risk.
Duplication threatens
These examples show children supporting one another in
collaborative risk enactments that deliver risk performances future of nurseries
sufficient to maintain standing within the group, while still
keeping individuals safe from harm. Older, more experi- Government-funded children's
enced children support younger, less experienced children centres pose a threat to the sus-
in this process. Of course, "committed" risk-taking play also tainability of private and volun-
happens at the Quarry, as well as "conventional" and simu- tary sector nurseries, the
lated risk-taking. What is striking in all cases is the degree National Day Nurseries
of competence shown by children as risk managers. The Association has warned. The
evidence from this study backs the argument that children charity looked at how closely
need opportunities to manage risk in a supportive environ- local authorities and day nurser-
ment. ies are working in partnership to
deliver the government's child-
care objectives.
References Its research found that 50% of
day nurseries were facing the sit-
Douglas, M & Wildavsky, A (1982) Risk and culture: an
uation of their local council using
essay on the selection of technological and environmental
government funding to create a
dangers Berkeley, University of California Press
children's centre near their own
Ellis, M (1973) Why people play Englewood Cliffs NJ,
nursery. The NDNA is concerned
Prentice-Hall
that this will duplicate existing
Garvey, C (1991) Play 2nd edition, London, Harper
provision and exacerbate the
Collins
problem of unfilled places. In
Huttenlocher, P (1990) Morphometric study of human
August this year, private and vol-
cerebral cortex development Neuropsychologia, 28, 6
untary sector nurseries were only
James, A, Jenks, C & Prout, A ( 1998) Theorizing child-
76% full compared with an occu-
hood Cambridge, Polity Press
pancy rate of 84% in February
Lindon, J (1999) Too safe for their own good? Helping chil-
2005.
dren learn about risk and lifeskills. London, National Early
Years Network
The research also suggests that
National Playing Fields Association (2000) Best Play: what
the growing number of schools
play provision should do for children London, National
entering the childcare sector is
Playing Fields AssociationChild Protection in Play Leisure
&
further compounding the
New Bichard Child Protection problem. The NDNA wants local
Vetting and Barring Scheme authorities to utilise private and
voluntary nurseries to meet gov-
Proposals ernment targets. "We would like
to see a national commissioning
The Bichard Report was published in June 2004, investigat-
framework that gives local
ing the background to the Soham Murders case. The report
authorities options for creating
made 31 recommendations accepted in principle by the
children's centres in partnership
Government, most of which concerned record keeping, vet-
with existing private and volun-
ting and information handling.
tary nurseries. This, in conjunc-
tion with a formal appeal proce-
Recommedation 19 was that “New arrangements should be
dure for nurseries where a local
introduced requiring those who work with children, or vul-
authority hasn't involved a willing
nerable adults, to be registered. The register would confirm
nursery, would go a long way to
that there is no known reason why an individual should not
reaching the government's child-
work with these client groups.”
care goals," said Purnima
Tanuku, NDNA chief execu-
The initial discussions were held in consultative groups
tive. Tanuku called on all nurs-
including a working party representing many interested
eries to contact their local
national bodies, government departments etc. The Bichard
authorities to explore how they
Implementation Group, on which Jan Cosgove of Fair Play
could work together. Why
sits, first of all came to the conclusion that there were two
Duplicate? from www.ndna.org.
ways ahead - either a scheme to register everyone working
uk
with the client groups, or, one which compiled a list of those
Source: 0-19
known to be banned from working with them. “Obviously,
the first path would involve literall millions of workers being
required to register, and their regular re-checks, and this Cost of CRB checks looks
would inevitably be hugely complicated and time-consum- set to rocket
ing, not to mention costly. The second is a much smaller
number of people and the question then is, how do we The price of criminal records
decide who is barred? Once that is decided, then it is a checks is set to rise significantly
case of employers checking new employees and volunteers over the next few years, accord-
against that barring list.” ing to Children Now.
Its report says Employers could
There is already a precedent for such a scheme for children be forced to pay double the cur-
in the List 99 (Education) and PoCA List against which e.g. rent rate to check whether
teachers and childcare workers have to be checked - these
lists are of those people who are barred from such work Child Protection in
because of unsuitability. There is also the prohibition on Play.
those convicted of specified offences, now listed in the
Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2000 (which consolidates a A Fair Play for Children Programme
lot of previous Acts in this regard). The more recent POVA aimed at encouraging Good
system lists those barred from work with vulnerable adults. Practice in child protection in play
and leisure settings: CRB checks,
What is envisaged, therefore, is a national List of people model policy, advice and informa-
who are registered as barred from working with children or tion, fact sheets, train-
vulnerable adults. This path is the one chosen to be devel- ing sessions etc.
oped into a national scheme for Vetting and Barring (VBS). 0845-330 7635 or
The objective is to reduce the incidence of harm to children fairplay@arunet.co.ukChild Protection in Play Leisure
&
and vulnerable adults by helping to ensure that: employees are suitable to
work with children. The report
- Employers get better vetting service when recruting suggests the price hike will be
people who come into contact with children and/or vulner- introduced to pay for the new
able adults through their work (paid or voluntary); vetting and barring scheme that
- Those wo are known to be unsuitable are barred the Government is introducing in
from such work at the earliest opportunity. response to the Bichard Inquiry
into the Soham murders. The
The current system, relying mainly on CRB checks and refer- predicted annual cost of running
ences, has flaws: the scheme has leapt from £8m
to £22m and a source on the
- Inconsistent decisions by employers Government's Bichard implemen-
- Not all staff eligible for Enhanced Disclosures tation team revealed: "The ongo-
- Disclosure is a ‘snapshot’ - only valid on day of ing costs will be met by
issue increased charges for Criminal
- Inconsistencies between current Lists Records Bureau checks.
- Barring is reactive - after the event "Concerns about the expense
- Cost and delay of repeated checks have been raised. David
- Inconsistencies in police disclosure of information. Hawker, director of children's
service at Brighton & Hove City
The key features of the VBS will include: Council, warned that children's
services departments could be
- a barring decision on application to work with chil- forced to withdraw funding from
dren or vulberable adults certain services to meet the ris-
- continuously updated barring decisions ing costs. A Department of
- Entry to the scheme through Vetting and Barring Education and Skills spokesman
Disclsoures - equivalent to current Enhanced Disclosures said no final decision had been
- Instant on-line check for employers made over whether to increase
- More people eligble for VBS than current Enhanced the price of checks but confirmed
Disclosures. it was a possibility. "The new
Vetting and Barring Disclosure
The scheme will also cover self-employed people such as will provide significantly
music teachers. enhanced services and if it is
decided to fund the scheme
The process would start with a individual making a VBS through a similar mechanism this
application through a CRB Registered Body, which would would involve an additional
then check the national criminal records data base and also charge." Source: Children Now
local police information (now coordinated nationally through
a tagging system which indicates if a local police force holds
NSPCC to run ChildLine
‘soft intelligence’. From CRB the application will then go
through to the VBS Barring Unit to see if the person is listed
ChildLine's free helpline is set to
as barred. The results will then go back to the Registered
become part of the NSPCC early
Body and thence the Individual.
in 2006. ChildLine originally
approached the NSPCC about a
People will be placed on the Barring List for a number of
merger. ChildLine says it could
reasons - for example, because of specified criminal records,
have continued alone but cuts
or because of a process similar to that which places people
would have been needed
on List 99, POCA, POVA etc. This system will be a quasi-
to put the organisation on a
judicial process where, for example, someone’s unsuitability,Child Protection in Play Leisure
&
through negligence or behaviour, will be reported and a "more stable financial foot-
decision made as to the person’s being barred or not. This ing". Joining the NSPCC means
process will allow for representation of the individual, and ChildLine can "protect and devel-
for appeal. op a service that has proved to
be crucial to the welfare of chil-
Such a system will also be continuously updated - informa- dren in the UK," said a ChildLIne
tion will be gathered from the police, employers etc - under spokesperson. NSPCC has an
the Protection of Children Act 1999, all choldcare employers annual income of £112 million
are mandated to make such reports, where, for example, an compared to ChildLine's £14.6
employee’s behaviour has made it clear to the employer that million. While NSPCC has 2,075
they legally must not continue to employ that person in a staff, ChildLine has just 281.
childcare capacity.
ChildLine was founded by Esther
The Barring scheme will only apply in relation to jobs that Rantzen in 1986. It has never
involve working in positions with children and/or vulnerable been able to meet the enormous
adults, as defined by the type of setting, type of contact, or demand for help from children.
status and authority conferred. It will not cover administra- Becoming part of the NSPCC
tive jobs in health, housing etc, but where the bar does not means ChildLine will be able to
apply to a person and yet they are on the list, they will not answer more calls, say both
be barred from those jobs provided there are safeguards in charities. The ChildLine name
place. and phone number, 0800 1111,
will remain. NSPCC also has a
The VBS scheme would be mandatory on some employers separate helpline for anyone with
sch as schools, care home managers, NHS Trusts Ltd but concerns about the welfare of a
voluntary for all others. “This is an important area - we child and this will continue.
need to be sure that the mandatory list is strong enough NSPCC chair Sir Christopher
and covers children in many activities - Fair Play would Kelly: "The NSPCC and ChildLine
argue that the scheme should not be able to be ignored as share the same vision for chil-
this is precisely where unsuitable people gain their access to dren and young people - we
children” is the view from Jan Cosgrove on behalf of Fair have always enjoyed a close
Play. “Such people look for opportunity - that is the repeat- working relationship. We are
ed and cardinal lesson from all the many cases, including joining together now in the best
Soham, David Lawrence etc.” interests of children.” “This is
wonderful news for children.
“These ideas are a positive and practical search for answers When this move goes ahead,
to the serious issues raised in the Bichard Report. We are ChildLine will continue to provide
moving away from a scheme which registers some 6 or 7 exactly the same service," said
million people who may be involved in care for children or ChildLine chair Esther
vulnerable adults - that was unsustainable. By concentrat- Rantzen, "Joining with the
ing on building a list of those barred, we can see a way to NSPCC will offer ChildLine great-
enable employers to check quickly and easily for those who er financial security to answer
are barred. It will also enable parents to have peace of many more calls from distressed
mind because there will be a way also for them to check if children. And its counsellors will
someone who may be working with their children is be able to refer many children
barred.” on to the NSPCC's other pioneer-
ing services" . Both charities now
It would be an offence for employers to emply a barred enter into a period of consulta-
individual. The VBS scheme is still being developed and tion on the details. ChildLine said
announcements are expected fairly soon as to the full details redundancies at "director level"Children and Play
Tackling antiso-
cial behaviour is
more than issuing
The play needs of children in a London Borough -
seen through their eyes, by Dr John Horton
asbos
Tackling antisocial behaviour is
From September 2004 to August 2005, a major research not just about issuing antisocial
project focussing upon play provision and the play needs of behaviour orders, Scottish justice
children and young people in the London Borough of minister Cathy Jamieson warned
Redbridge was conducted by the Centre for Children and recently. Jamieson said that
Youth (based at the University of Northampton), in conjunc- many commentators felt that
tion with specialist researcher partners from the Out of tackling antisocial behaviour was
School Childcare Research Unit at Brunel University, and the just about issuing more and more
Early Years Education Department at the University of Asbos, but that getting to the
Northampton. underlying causes involved much
more.
The project has provided a new and unprecedented body of
evidence about play in the Borough. So, where to begin? A report published a year after
The Centre for Children and Youth (CCY) was asked, essen- the introduction of new laws
tially, to provide a vision of play, play needs and play provi- designed to tackle antisocial
sion in the Borough, through the eyes and voices of children behaviour north of the border
and young people aged 5-13. found that during the year there
had been:-
We spent the best part of a year working on the project, • Investment in programmes
from September 2004 to August 2005. In that time we con- designed to divert young people
sulted over 750 children and young people from the away from trouble.
Borough. We used a wide range of methods including a very • More than 1,500 on the spot
detailed questionnaire survey, a mapping project and a pho- fines to curb unacceptable
tography project. To get at other different perspectives we behaviour.
also consulted over 250 parents, and twenty-eight key • The creation of local hotlines to
workers in the play/recreation sector from the Borough. speed up the reporting of antiso-
We were asked to work with/in four contrasting communi- cial behaviour
ties in the Borough: Loxford ward; Hainault ward; Wanstead • Action to tackle graffiti, boy
ward; and children and young people with disabilities, racers and noisy neighbours
impairments or special needs in the Borough.
"The concentration on Asbos has
Methodological details, and far, far more exhaustive findings often masked the success of
are available on request in a variety of end-of-project publi- those other measures," said
cations. However, for the purposes of this column I will try Jamieson. "And tackling ASB is
to distil out some of the big lessons that we have learnt not simply about making full use
from the project. of the powers in the Act. It's
about offering alternatives and
Children Care about their Communities positive life choices to all our
people, particularly our young
The first thing is simply to say that, by and large, the chil- people," she concluded. Source:
dren and young people we met in the Borough care deeply Community Care
about their local communities, and want to have more of aChildren and Play
say in and about community issues, including issues relating
to outdoor play. We found that there is so much that can be
Antisocial
learnt from local children and young people, not just on Behaviour: Groups
play, but on all issues. Redbridge Children's Fund and
Redbridge Children's Advisory Panel should be proud of pro-
welcome changes
viding a forum where that sort of engagement is both pos- to ASBOs
sible and encouraged.
Youth justice organisations have
Play Relates to Bigger Issues welcomed the announcement
that under-17s can now have
Secondly, we have come to realise that play is never a their antisocial behaviour orders
stand-alone issue. We went out and asked children ques- (ASBOs) lifted after one year.
tions about play, but the answers we got back were rarely Until now the minimum length for
just about playing. Instead, the answers we got back were an ASBO was two years. But
usually about wider community life and bigger issues. So under new Home Office mea-
play must be understood and approached as embedded in sures, all young people under 17
wider community life. And because of that, play needs to be with ASBOs will undergo a one-
understood as complex and multifaceted and bound up in all year review. The results of the
sorts of other issues that are going on. review could lead to additional
support being given to tackle
Redbridge is Part of a Wider Community their behaviour, a variation of the
terms of the ASBO, or a complete
Thirdly, our findings remind us that the Borough of Redbridge discharge.
does not stand alone - it is not an island. By that we mean
that children and young people from the Borough often play Ellie Roy, chief executive of
in places outside the Borough boundaries. And likewise play the Youth Justice Board: "A
crosses ward boundaries. So we need to be aware that the year may be sufficient time for
issue of play rarely fits into the neat lines that adults put on youth offending teams and other
maps. partner agencies to achieve last-
ing changes to many young peo-
Recurring Comments ple's behaviour." The Association
of YOT Managers wants to
Fourthly, there were some issues relating to play which remove the current two-year
came up again and again wherever we were in the Borough. minimum length for ASBOs on
Children and young people, and parents and professionals young people, to allow magis-
too, were typically in agreement that local play opportunities trates to treat individual cases on
need to be better in five senses. In some ways these find- merit. Source: Young People
ings might appear to be passé and predictable, but at pres- News
ent these factors really do significantly limit the outdoor
play/recreation of many children and young people in the
Borough.
Youth justice:
Crime figures show
i) Play opportunities need to be richer.
Among other things, children and young people meant that
drop in youth
there is a need for better quality outdoor play/recreation offending
equipment, improved provision for safe cycling or skate-
boarding, improved provision for sports, or more opportuni-
The number of young people in
ties for children (especially older children), who do not want
trouble with the law fell for a
close adult supervision and require less structured playChildren and Play
opportunities. third successive year in
2004, according to Home Office
ii) Play opportunities need to be more accessible. statistics published recently.The
There are some groups of children in the Borough who are, figures revealed that 137,000 10-
for different reasons, often systematically excluded from to 18-year-olds were proceeded
local opportunities for outdoor play. They include Asian and against last year, 13,000 fewer
minority ethnic children and young people; refugee children than 2001. The number of 18- to
and young people; children and young people with disabili- 21-year-olds proceeded against
ties, particularly older or black and minority ethnic children fell sharply from 222,000 to
with disabilities; and children from low-income households. 206,000 in 2004. Will
McMahon, a senior associate
iii) Play opportunities need to be safer. at the Crime and Society
Everywhere in the Borough, issues such as traffic, gangs, Foundation, said the statistics
bullying, strangers, and 'bad behaviour', rudeness and highlighted the folly of the
abuse (including racist abuse) were reported as issues Government's punitive approach
which limit outdoor play. to young people. "The number of
iv) Play provision needs to be better maintained. serious offences has dropped like
Here issues of litter, dog excrement, graffiti and vandalism a stone since 2000 but the num-
were reported time and again. ber of young people in prisons
v) Play opportunities need to be 'better publicised'. continues to go up," he said.
I have put that in inverted commas, because we have seen McMahon called for a "dramatic
that a wealth of information is produced about, and avail- U-turn in government policy"
able in, the Borough, but we have found that there was away from custodial sentences
often very low awareness of this information, or where to and questioned the effectiveness
get hold of it. of the Youth Justice Board. "The
Youth Justice Board was sup-
Community Issues posed to be a new mechanism
for dealing with young people,"
Fifthly, as well as those general issues, there are some he said. "One might want to talk
issues which are quite specific to the different areas and about what its role actually is in
communities that we worked in. Play issues and needs vary the context of these figures."
considerably across the Borough: each locality has its own Source: Youth Justice News
distinctive local opportunities and problems. Policies and
strategies relating to play should therefore be sensitive to
these sorts of differences. A 'one-size-fits-all' policy on play
Fears over Asbo
will be ill-suited to attend to the diverse play contexts and alarm that targets
issues which exist within a Borough such as Redbridge.
young people
For example, the following issues characterised play in the
Fears have been raised that a
different communities in which we worked.
new alarm system that claims to
combat antisocial behaviour
Play in Loxford might harm the young people it
is meant to deter. The device -
o There is a strong feeling in this community that potential which is called the Mosquito -
venues for outdoor play/recreation are currently 'dangerous' issues a high pitch alarm that its
and off-limits, primarily because of anxiety about personal distributor says can only be
safety, 'gang culture', crime and drugs. heard by young people under 25
o There is a strong dependency on opportunities in the due to the sensitivity of their
immediate local area, primarily because of low income.You can also read
