Find out what is happening locally and nationally in the world of play.


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Playday 2010 - What happened and where


Eureka! Playday events 2010

Although essentially every day at Eureka! is a ‘playday’ we always try to offer extra activities to celebrate this special day. This year we had over 2,000 visitors to the museum who were able to take part in circus skills workshops and go-kart building sessions as well as using all their creative talents to build scarecrows and make festival headbands. In our Creativity Space some of our younger visitors were able to get very messy playing with the magic cornflour gloop and painting with spaghetti. Our Enablers had great fun teaching families some funky dance moves in the Beach Boogie sessions and visitors were also able to follow a trail around the museum and outdoor area which highlighted what a great place to play Eureka! is. All in all another successful Playday event enjoyed by staff and visitors alike.

 
Playday 2010 in West Yorkshire
 
Thousands of children across West Yorkshire enjoyed a play extravaganza featuring roller skating, donkey rides, go-kart making, baby ballet and fire-lighting.

 
These were just some of the free activities on offer at sites across Leeds, Kirklees and Wakefield yesterday to celebrate Playday 2010 – the annual celebration of youngsters' right to play.

To read the full article and view the photos visit www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Playday-2010-Roundhay-Park-fun.6458142.jp

Please contact Sally Swann This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with information about your Playday to include on the website.


National News:

Playwork vocational qualifications are changing

The new level 2 playwork qualification has been rolled out throughout the UK recently.  It incorporates a 3 tiered approach to gaining the qualification, an award, a certificate and finally the diploma.  Levels 3 and 4 in playwork are hoping to be available later in the year.

For more information have a look at the article in the new issue of Play Today (issue 70 Summer 2010) or visit the Skills active website.

Playwork survey highlights trends in sector
 
A brand new report, released 21st July 2010, shows that many playwork employers cannot find the staff with the skills they need.

Playwork People 4, SkillsActive’s survey of playworkers and playwork employers, shows that 60 per cent of employers surveyed said that they do not have all the skills they need across their workforce to run their business as they would like.

To read more findings go to http://www.skillsactive.com/playwork/news/2277_playwork_survey_highlights_trends_in_sector

 
 
Play England reorganisation marks new era for play

Play England has announced a proposed reorganisation in the light of the imminent reduction in the value of its contracts with the Department for Education for 2010-11, the removal of ‘ring-fenced’ funding for local play provision and the changing policy context for the play agenda under the coalition government.

To find out more visit http://www.playengland.org.uk/Page.asp?originx_3565dw_1359066324142u32u_20106281332s

 


Big annual increase in children's satisfaction with local play offer

Findings from the annual TellUs survey show that children's level of satisfaction with parks and play areas has increased by almost eight per cent when compared to last year's results.   To find out more click here [http://www.playengland.org.uk/Page.asp?originx_311ga_11001958286427l28k_20103111851u ]

Berlin recognises children make noise while playing

 The Senate in Berlin has recently passed a local law recognising that children making noise when they play is perfectly natural and should be respected by adult residents. 

For more on this story see the BBC webpage http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8520941.stm  or see http://www.noballgames.eu/news.php

  
Play spaces afforded more protection under guidance 

The government is introducing tougher planning guidelines for local authorities to protect the use of open spaces for children's play.

A new policy statement, Planning for a Natural and Healthy Environment, published by the Communities and Local Government (CLG) department, is currently under consultation.

The statement places an unprecedented emphasis on the importance of maintaining open and green spaces in the community for the use of children's play.

It states: "Planning permission should be refused for proposals that would result in the loss of existing areas of open space or land and buildings used for sport, recreation or play."

Permission may only be granted where the land or buildings are proven to be surplus to requirements. It adds that open spaces have "a vital role in promoting healthy living and in the social development of children through play".

The document will replace existing guidance, which emphasises protecting open space for the use of sport and recreation, rather than play.

The changes will ensure that maintaining play areas will be considered equally important as maintaining parks and playing fields.

Adrian Voce, director of Play England, said the guidance represents an important step towards more child-friendly communities.

"If we don't address the issue of wider access to public space, we're not getting to the root of the problem of children being prisoners in their own homes," he said. 

Local News:



Inclusive play gets a boost!

 By Calderdale Council’s Play Services Team.

 Fantastic news for disabled children, young people and their families throughout Calderdale!

We have been successful in our application to the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme to offer inclusive holiday play sessions for all disabled children and young people over 5 years of age.

We will be able to make some of our fantastic Play Ranger sessions fully inclusive and will offer a real choice of supported open access activities, in addition to offering specialised play sessions for those children and young people who need it.  Funding has also been received to pay for an Inclusion Play Worker.  It will be this person’s job to develop and promote inclusive play across Calderdale.   During the next few months we will be asking disabled children and young people what kind of things they would like to do during the sessions, in addition to asking families how we can make the sessions accessible.

Watch this space for further information.

Play Shaper – City of York Council

 City of York Council hosted a Play Shaper event in October 2009. The event was attended by a wide range of senior managers working for and with the local authority including: the Head of Parks, Head of Transport and Planning, Head of City Development, Performance Management Officer and a local authority Landscape Architect. 

During the course of the seminar, a number of pledges to action were made, including: 

In the next few days….

 Invite the play lead to a senior management meeting to discuss how supporting play can help the local authority meet performance measures

• Talk to York Museums Trust about how they can support play opportunities for children and young people
• Deliver a briefing on the benefits of play to the City Development Team
• Include ‘play’ in the transport department’s review of Foot Streets

 In the next few weeks…

 Develop and refine local play indicators to measure the play provision of the local authority

• Include play objectives within the rationale for 20mph ‘home zone’ areas (Head of Transport & Planning)
• Ensure the key principles of play are included in the City Centre Vision Prospectus – which shapes the vision for York for the next 20 years (Head of City Development)
• Discuss with team how risk benefit analysis could be used to assess what we would do with site specific ‘play problem areas’ (Head of Parks)
• Look at the potential for Play Builder to include some city centre sites
• Issue an invitation for the play lead to come and present on play and the Play Strategy (local and national) at the next Tenancy Managers meeting
• Set up a new strategic partnership for play to look at moving forward the pledges made during the Play Shaper seminar

 In the next few months….

 Take account of the Ten Design Principles from Design for Play and draw up development plans for all play areas (not just Play Builder sites) with the Parks team (Head of Parks)

• Provide capacity to research and gather baseline information to support the new local play indicators that we are going to develop with the Play Team (Performance Management Officer)
• Ensure that the key concepts of play and playable spaces are carried through to the development of Local Travel Plans (Head of Transport and Planning)
• Join the new strategic play partnership
• Incorporate play intro draft landscape design briefs for local authority in-house team and developers (LA Landscape Architect)
• Ensure we embed the principles of play into the Local Development Framework (Head of City Development)
• Work with the play team to identify opportunities to develop city play spaces as part of the Play Builder programme – e.g. similar to water fountains in Notts city centre and others (Head of City Development)

  The result has been a positive move forward regards play in the city.

York recently opened its second Playbuilder site in the village of Naburn which was greeted with much enthusiasm as there was previously no provision in the village.