Author: Siôn

“All work and no play makes you… what, exactly?” booms the voice of Welsh actor Matthew Rhys Evans across the Conference Hall of Glasgow Caledonian University. It’s Wednesday 7th June 2023, and I’m attending the International Play Association’s (IPA) triennial world conference in Glasgow thanks to a bursary from IPA Cymru. And despite the kilt-clad piper playing outside the Annie Lennox Building just the morning before, here I am, transported back to the land of my fathers as Play Wales premieres its new film ‘This is why play is so important’.

The film, commissioned by Play Wales, aims to communicate to adults working with children (and parents and carers) the importance of play. As I’m sure anyone in the playwork sector will attest, that’s easier said than done! It’s the thing that makes play and playwork so difficult for the wider world to quickly grasp – it is both simple and complex. Our impact, as adults, upon play is too readily underestimated. And the consequences of children and young people being deprived opportunities to play, freely overlooked yet so immeasurably detrimental to the health of both the child and the community in which they live.

That being said, if there’s a film to try and win hearts and minds of the masses in just a quarter of an hour, this is it. I should admit my bias and the reason the film resonated so deeply for me, at this point. The Venture, and all the wonderful children and young people who bring it to life, are prominent characters in the film. The Venture is also the place where I started out as a playworker and where I currently work as Communications Manager and Inclusion Project Manager.

The film uses the voices of children and young people from across Wales and mixes them with adult memories and testimonies of play and its importance. It also provides a visual tour of the myriad of landscapes and playscapes in Wales: adventure playgrounds, streets, sea shores, gardens, skate parks, schoolyards, and verdant valleys shaded by woodland.

SPOILER ALERT: Just over halfway through the film, we get a couple of mentionable cameos. Around the 8-minute mark, complete with blond hair that might be from filming season 2 of Good Omens, we get the unmistakable Michael Sheen projecting out of the screen as he describes the joy of riding a tricycle repeatedly around a track. This is followed, not long after, by former Children’s Commissioner for Wales (and patron of The Venture) Keith Towler who tells the tale of a leap too far – an account of what Bob Hughes might have called “Deep Play” – and a plummet to hard ground below. Under normal circumstances, such stories might evoke a squeamish reaction and the conclusion that such experiences have no value and should be prevented. Yet here, in the safe confines of this well paced and gently-toned film, the moment fills the room around me with a ripple of laughter indicative of both amusement and affinity.

I’ve since watched the film several times. Once again in Scotland, at the closing of the IPA conference, at the Welsh premiere in a dusty barn in Llanwrthwl as part of Playworkers’ Forum, and during the northern premiere at Tŷ Pawb, Wrecsam, with some of the stars of the show. Each time, despite the assumption that I would not be brought to tears again, I find myself sniffling and smiling through the joy and adulation of this new piece of playwork culture.

What struck me in that conference hall in Glasgow, was a moment of clarity. A reminder of why we do what we do, as playworkers, and the journey we have travelled over the last few years.

In March 2020, COVID detained our ability to playwork overnight. But we eventually found a way. We ploughed through the guidance and the science; we jumped through the bubbles and the track and trace. And eventually, quietly and unceremoniously, we returned to the playwork we once knew. But it’s not the same. Funding is far more competitive; playworkers are now teaching assistants or scooped up by Aldi and Lidl; children and young people are forced onto the “catch up” conveyor belt; and that’s without even beginning to examine the impacts of lockdowns and what happened during them.

But some good came out of COVID. At the beginning of 2021, we tentatively established The Venture Play Inclusion Project (PIP) – closed playwork provision for children and young people with neurodevelopmental conditions. This was because we were increasingly hearing accounts of autistic children and young people being excluded from playing in public parks and green spaces due to the volume of people and the negative/stigmatic responses of the general public. Our adventure playground at The Venture, mostly vacant during the day at that time, was offered as a sanctuary for these children and young people, and their families (and support bubble), to come and play unabated. A time and space where they could be their authentic selves in a playful environment, with adults who honoured their play: playworkers. Since then, PIP has become a group session popular with children and young people of all ages. We even attracted the attention of the Prime Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, who visited in May 2022 and experienced his first s’more!

There, on the big screen in Glasgow, were these children – a testament of our project. It seemed unfathomable that we hadn’t known them until COVID. Yet here, in 2023, my heart leapt at the sight of their younger selves. My mind hurtled backwards to those hand-sanitising times, where we pushed forward a front against the virus to enable these children to play in their own way. Those memories meeting and mixing with the present. Only days before, at our now-regular Saturday PIP session, these same amazing children were sharing their creativity, their aspirations, their worries, their battles. I suddenly realised how much they’d grown! Physically, their faces and features gave testimony to the passage of time and, in some cases, the ravages of puberty. They’ve also grown as people – and so have we!

My partner, Nic, who is autistic and volunteered on those initial PIP sessions, is now a fully-fledged playworker on the inclusion project and the open-access playwork provision at The Venture. I, as a result of many conversations with parents/carers, also completed my own journey of diagnosis and can now embrace my neurodiversity.

It was there, amongst playworkers and play advocates from around the globe, that I suddenly saw the bigger picture. It shouldn’t have taken a global pandemic, but through COVID we realised just how inclusive and universal playwork practice can be to enable children and young people to play. Those 15 minutes were cathartic.

For me this film is more than just an advocacy tool. It’s a touchstone to the past – a reminder of the route we took; an affirmation for the present for when times (and budgets) get tough; and, a torch for the future, when light is needed to help guide the way.

Diolch o galon / Thank you to Play Wales, Welsh Government, and all the contributors (especially the children and young people) from the bottom of my heart for creating such a beautiful piece.

I can’t guarantee that you will experience the film in the same way I do, but I will promise that it’s 15 minutes of your day well-spent.

Mwynha / Enjoy!

This article was written by Siôn Edwards and represents his personal opinions, rather than those of The Playwork Foundation.