Category: Blog

Will Cardiff Bay speak up for play after election day?

Tomorrow is set to be a bumper election day in Great Britain! 

In England alone, there will be local council elections, mayoral elections, Mayor of London elections, London Assembly elections and Police & Crime Commissioner* elections. Some of these are elections that were postponed in 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19. 

*Police & Crime Commissioner elections will also be taking place in Wales. Did you know that Wales and England share a single jurisdiction but have two legislatures? Something unique in the world. 

As if that wasn’t enough elections for one day, there will also be a Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament election and a Scottish Parliamentary election. This article will look at the Senedd elections – fellow Trustee, Ann-marie, has written a piece on the Scottish Parliamentary election which you can read here. If you’re unfamiliar, this short video explains the powers of the Senedd. 

This year’s Senedd election is nothing short of historic! Thanks to the ‘Senedd Election Act 2020’, 16 and 17 year-olds will be able to vote for the first time as well as an estimated 33,000 foreign nationals gaining the right to vote – this represents the biggest expansion of the franchise since 1969, when suffrage was extended to 18 to 21 year-olds, and will undoubtedly impact on the results of the election. 

So, what do the parties say about play and playwork for #Senedd2021?

Whilst a number of parties have progressive manifesto promises for children and young people, only the Wales Green Party and Welsh Liberal Democrats specifically reference “play”, albeit in the context of early years education in both cases. Questions to Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price, on play, also returned responses linking to education and early years. Despite no mention of it in their manifesto, it could be argued that, as it was a Welsh Labour Government that produced The Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010, that gave us the Play Sufficiency Duty, and their record in supporting play in recent years, that Labour will likely continue this commitment.  

Whatever the party-political make-up of the new Welsh parliament and government next week, a number of organisations have made it clear to all of them what they believe should be done to protect the rights of children in Wales, including their right to play.

First, we look at our national play board, Play Wales, and their manifesto “Wales – a play friendly place”. The headline asks are for the continuation of the Play Sufficiency Duty and for the opportunities for children to play to “increase and improve”. The dominance of the motor vehicle is addressed, with recommendations for default 20mph speed limits in built-up areas and government-mandated guidance for street play projects. Looking at schools, Play Wales propose a mandatory minimum time for “play breaks” within the school day and also ask for consideration, wherever practical, to making outdoor school grounds available for play after school and at weekends.  Play Wales also call for a public campaign that not only explains what play is but also communicates the health and wellbeing benefits for children and wider society. 

The Children’s Commissioner for Wales’s Manifesto briefly mentions play, asking for “more youth and play services that anyone can use, for free”. However it does go a little further by giving a vision of the future with “free adventure playgrounds all over the country”! This year will see the end of the current Commissioner’s tenure – we hope that the next Commissioner will be just as welcoming to play and playwork as Sally has been. 

Clybiau Plant Cymru Kids’ Club appear to be the only organisation making very specific representations on behalf of playworkers. Specifically, they call for: the “continued investment in professionalisation of the sector” via funding, CPD and access to training and qualifications; recognition of playworkers’ influence on children’s lives and the Welsh economy to be “recognised in all government communications and policy decisions”; parity with Early Years workers through an “active and effective sector skills council”; and a call for more initiatives that support fair remuneration for playworkers (e.g. tax-free childcare, the childcare offer and 100% rates relief). 

The Play Sufficiency Duty and legislation like the world-first Well-being of Future Generations Act, are indicative of how progressive governments can make a real difference to children and young people’s lives in a meaningful and sustainable way and on a national scale. However, any incoming Welsh Government will still be restricted by the allocation of funding set by the UK Government and by the reservation of powers over aspects of media, health and safety legislation, employment and regulation of charities. 

In the coming months, The Playwork Foundation will be revisiting ‘A Manifesto for Play: Policy proposals for children’s play in England’ that was written in partnership with Play England and IPA England ahead of the 2019 UK General Election. Taking into consideration the composition of the new parliaments and governments in Wales and Scotland following national elections, and the shifting of the political map in England as a result of local elections, we hope to present a vision for the future of playwork that can influence and encourage each nation of the UK to not only recognise the profession but utilise our expertise and practice to the benefit of children and young people in every corner of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 

If you’re living in Wales and wondering who to vote for, the BBC have put together this guide, or, for those in Scotland and England voting this Thursday, you can find out about all the elections, candidates and parties by visiting https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/

Siôn Edwards

Will parents hold the key to a new Holyrood?

Nearly halfway through the Year of Childhood for 2021, which includes becoming the first nation in the world to directly incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into domestic law, Scots will be heading to the polls to elect a new Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government. 

Scottish Out of School Care Network has gathered the manifesto commitments of the five main political parties in the Scottish Parliament relating to school-age childcare.  

Issues affecting children that might impact on how parents vote in the Scottish election include testing of both senior and primary 1 pupils with the process for exams coming under fire and the whole idea that primary 1’s be tested after missing so much school being very unpopular.

Another contentious issue is school starting age in general but very specifically there is a bit of a postcode lottery with regard to deferred entry for children who don’t automatically get a deferred place (and an extra year of pre-school education) because they are born slightly earlier in the school year and this is a particular issue for children who were premature babies.

Of course, we won’t know if these factors have any bearing on how parents vote but it’s interesting to speculate.

Anne-marie Mackin

Child development vs child Education

In this original article, one of the country’s leading experts in children’s outdoor play, Rob Wheway, criticises the UK Government for neglecting children’s development, suggesting that the Covid-19 restrictions further increase the damage to their physical and mental health.

The UK Government’s exclusive focus on school-based education, ignoring children’s out-of-school activity, is damaging. It wrongly assumes that school education is sufficient for children’s development. The idea of extending the school day in England confirms this bias.

This fixation on school-focused education, at the expense of a wider view of child development, is puzzling. Children have nearly as many days for play (175) as days for school (190) each year. Even on school days, they have hours for play after school. Covid restrictions have increased the hours but restricted the opportunities.

Clearly, time for play is a larger portion of children’s lives than school. It is also the opportunity for children to develop some of their abilities in ways that are much more effective than school-based education. The most obvious of these is exercise. When they can play out, children do get a lot of exercise. Some of this is fast, such as tag-type games; some is sporadic, such as hide-and-seek and riding scooters or bikes; ball games give co-ordination; imaginative play often involves running around in a magical world from which adults are excluded. Where children can play out in safety, e.g. in small cul-de-sacs, children as young as 4 learn to cycle on 2-wheeled bikes without stabilizers.

Achieved without adults

All this exercise is done willingly, for the fun of it, rather than to achieve tested stages. In all these ways, for long periods of time, children who can play out, get more exercise than they do at school. It is achieved without adults needing to be there. 

Less obvious than exercise is the social development children gain from play. When playing they have to organise the activity, make the rules, set the boundaries, settle disputes, reach compromises, make up after upsets. They have to be honest and give themselves up when they are out.  If a friend arrives with two younger siblings they have to work out how to integrate them into the game. 

Some children are lucky enough to live near an adventure playground where they can play freely. The playworker’s role is to enable rather than to organise the children.  In this way children can build dens, use real tools, light fires.  They can have more adventurous activities than on a conventional playground.

These benefits from play are there precisely because adults are NOT organising what happens. In play, adults do not follow a curriculum that is tested at various stages. Children take the initiative and organise themselves. They learn naturally what will give the most fun and fulfilment. We take the social development of all this sophisticated agreement-making for granted because children have always done it for themselves, throughout the ages. 

What’s gone wrong?

So what’s gone wrong?  There has been a massive environmental problem that is unrecognised.  For generations, people had public open space just outside the home, where adults could walk and talk, and children could play.  It was called the street.  But now the car has been allowed to dominate even residential side roads. The result is that children cannot play out, and so they are less fit, more obese and less emotionally resilient than previous generations. Parents are blamed for wrapping their children in cotton wool and stopping them from playing, but they are in fact making sensible decisions to keep their children away from the danger of fast cars.

Covid restrictions have made matters worse and governments refuse to recognise that the increasing problems of damaged physical and mental health are caused by the lack of freedom to play – NOT a lack of school.

Playgrounds are valuable, but less than 10 per cent of children have access to a playground where they can play freely every day. The government in England is ignoring the other 90 per cent. Town parks or destination playgrounds are great as family facilities, but only for the one or two occasions per week when parents have time to take their children. 

Restricting traffic

The Government makes the classic mistake of concentrating on outputs (number of playgrounds) rather than outcomes (can children play freely every day).  The number of playgrounds is counted whether or not children can access them in safety. A strategy of restricting traffic on side roads would permit children to play out. They would be in small numbers and in the outdoors so would be safer than going back to crowded indoor classrooms.

Playing is a vital part of children’s development. Given a chance, it is what they will happily do for hours on end. It’s a natural part of their development.  Of course, they will spend time on computer games, but as the previous generation found when radio and TV emerged, they still wanted to get out and play.

In summary, freedom to play outside, but close to home, is vital for children’s healthy development. Ignoring it is damaging children’s physical and mental health.

Rob Wheway

Rob Wheway is the director and principal consultant of the Children’s Play Advisory Service

Play Wales publishes first of new series on play theory

Play Wales has released the first of a series of guides exploring some of the theories that influence the way adults understand children, the role of play and childhood, as well as the ethics of working with playing children.

The first guide:

  • Explores some of the ideas, concepts and theories of child development and childhood that have influenced and continue to influence understandings of children and their play and as a result are important to those practicing playwork.
  • Looks at the playwork role and how it both affects and is affected by the environment and the children. It considers how the play process is given precedence and how playworkers balance the developmental benefits of play with children’s well-being.

Play Wales worked with Ludicology to produce this and three further guides to be published over the coming weeks.

You can download the first volume in Welsh or English or view online, in Welsh here or English here. 

Inspecting your adventure playground

As practitioner-led structure building declines, Rob Wheway of the Children’s Play Advisory Service explains how inspection training is part of a renaisance of this quintessential feature of the traditional adventure playground.

Over the course of its history, adventure play has had a variety of attributes promulgated as its defining practice ethos, with different aspects taking prominence at different times, as fashion – both in playwork and in the wider zeitgeist – fluctuates. First ‘risky play’ takes the limelight, then ‘creative play’, before ‘natural play’ wrestles it away for a while … and so it goes on.

Whichever way the zeitgeist goes, though, it is an abiding characteristic of adventure playgrounds that they are made and built by playworkers. The ethos of adventure play is self-build: playworkers build them, and playworkers are responsible for them.

However, many playworkers are currently employed on adventure playgrounds that have either not been rebuilt for some years, or where contractors have been used in preference to training the workforce in the relevant skills.

Such practitioners, having had no role in the building of their playgrounds, are in a difficult position. This was highlighted of the recent case involving the failure of a piece of ‘self-build’ equipment (which had, in fact, been placed by a contractor) and which had not been adequately inspected.  It was this case which probably propelled the furore with an insurance company a couple of years ago, and led to headlines that adventure play is too dangerous to insure.

Upskilling the workforce

The response to this turn of events could be to further deskill the workforce and deaden the adventure playground with rigidity – no more self-build, no more flexibility, no more children ‘spoiling’ bought equipment with hammers and nails … Or, it could be to develop further methodologies to overcome insurers’ fears and to upskill the workforce’s competence in caring for and developing the play environments they provide.

In pursuance of the latter, the short course ‘Inspecting your Adventure Playground’ has been developed by the Children’s Play Advisory Service, which is recognised as one of the foremost resources for health and safety expertise in both the fixed-equipment and adventure play fields.

This course is designed to provide a framework for playworkers to both perform operational inspections of their playsites, and keep an ongoing paper trail as evidence that due care has been taken to repair and maintain the attendant structures.  This both ensures that the site remains in an acceptable state between annual inspections, and covers the organisation and workforce against claims of negligence in the event of unexpected and unforeseeable catastrophe.

Piloted with playworkers

The course has been piloted with playworkers running adventure playgrounds, mostly to a good reception. Participants have commented, “I thought the information given on this course was relevant in order for playworkers to have a better understanding of how to keep a playground safe” and, “Very informative… all adventure playground staff need this training.”  However, there remains some confusion over operational inspection, dynamic risk assessment and annual, independent inspection.

The course is not a substitute for annual, independent, inspection by a competent and qualified person.  Its methodology works in tandem with independent inspection and is intended to overcome the tendency, which overworked playworkers may have, to put the independent inspection, once completed, aside until the following year, in order to avoid the onerous and laborious tick-box sheets which can become robotic, not really checks at all; or the tendency to do the checks, but not to record them. Neither does its methodology work the same as dynamic risk assessment, which is a process for judging actions in the provision, rather than a system for recording the physical safety of the provision itself.

As there is currently no accrediting body for courses in playwork (which the Playwork Foundation and others are working to remedy) the current ‘Inspecting your Playground’ course does not carry a qualification. It does, however, both equip playworkers with the tools to prove competence should the need arise and, more importantly, mitigate against such eventualities by enabling them to be more fully responsible for their own sites.

Rob Wheway
Children’s Play Advisory Service (CPAS)

For more information contact Rob Wheway, Director of CPAS. on whewayr@gmail.com or 024 7650 3540

Ali Wood of the Playwork Foundation adds…

The Playwork Foundation has heard from a number of playworkers in adventure playgrounds with self-build structures about how best to inspect and maintain these to ensure they remain safe. We, therefore, want to promote the course run by the Children’s Play Advisory Service, ‘Inspecting Adventure Playgrounds’ that enables playworkers to do just that. 

At Meriden AP, for example (where I am a trustee), we are currently having to deal with a personal injury claim regarding a child who came on her first visit and broke her leg at the bottom of a slide constructed from large tunnel piping several years earlier.  Had our staff not done this course with Rob Wheway and Simon Rix, we may well have had difficulty providing the necessary evidence for both the solicitor and the insurance company, to show we were not negligent in both checking and maintaining this slide and all our other structures in a meaningful way. 

We were also able to call on Rob Wheway for the extra information we needed regarding what the law does and doesn’t require of us regarding self-build structures and his help was invaluable. I would really urge AP playworkers to do this course so you really know the ongoing condition of your structures both above and below ground and can be sure they are therefore safe.

Ali Wood

Ali Wood is a playwork trainer and writer who is a trustee both of the Playwork Foundation and Meriden Adventure Playground.

Images: Meriden Adventure Playground

MENTAL HEALTH EMERGENCY FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE: A CALL FOR URGENT MASS ACTION

A message from The All-Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood


Zoom Meeting open to all – Monday 8th February 2021 at 4.30 pm

The APPG is inviting you to an open meeting with the aim of encouraging and co-ordinating sector-wide activity to press for improved mental health support for children and young people.  

It is not the intention of the APPG or of the meeting to define precisely what organisations or individuals might wish to say. Each will have their own perspectives, and variety in approach will be an important factor in distinguishing the campaign from a standardised template letter-writing campaign. 

All you need to do if you would like to attend is to email: phil@royalpa.co.uk

Hopes raised
Even before the pandemic, there was overwhelming evidence of a significant and growing decline in the mental health of our children and young people. Much of this evidence was set out in APPG reports 10, 12 and 14. Some of the evidence available since the pandemic is attached to this email, courtesy of The Children First Alliance.

The APPG is currently preparing a further relevant report scheduled for March publication entitled: ‘The Covid Generation: A Mental Health Pandemic in the Making’.

Government seemed to accept that ‘something must be done’ and on 9th January 2017, former Prime Minister Theresa May announced the publication of a Green Paper: ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision.’

In a press release, heralding the Green Paper and captioned ‘Prime Minister unveils plans to transform mental health support,’ Mrs. May said:

‘What I am announcing are the first steps in our plan to transform the way we deal with mental illness in this country at every stage of a person’s life: not in our hospitals, but in our classrooms, at work and in our communities.
This starts with ensuring that children and young people get the help and support they need and deserve – because we know that mental illness too often starts in childhood and that when left untreated, can blight lives, and become entrenched.’


In July 2018, the Government published its response to the public consultation on the Green Paper with a joint Ministerial foreword by the Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, then as now, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and former Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP.

They said:

‘The government is delivering on manifesto commitments, taking focused action to provide the support needed by children and young people…Our aim is for the proposals we set out in our Green Paper in December 2017 to transform support for children and young people’s mental health, linked to and building upon what is already done by schools and colleges. We want to make sure that young people have access to the services they need, whilst teachers and schools – who are often on the front line of recognising and supporting a young person’s mental health problems – have access to the training they need…. we are determined to drive this programme forward as quickly as possible with the ultimate ambition for national rollout.’

Hopes that the Green Paper reforms would not be blown off course under the new Prime Minister were high when in the Queen’s Speech of 19th December 2019 Boris Johnson announced his intention to reform the 1983 Mental Health Act ‘during the course of this Parliament’.

It was therefore reasonable to expect that the first comprehensive mental health legislative reform since 1983 would enshrine the principles and major proposals of the Green Paper.

Hopes dashed
There was concern that the Government-commissioned Wessely Review of the Act was strongly focussed on detention issues nevertheless the sector remained hopeful that the Green Paper reforms would not be lost. However, when the White Paper was published on Wednesday 13th January 2021, it became clear that there was little intention to roll out those Green Paper reforms.

The White Paper was laid before Parliament by the Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, then as now, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the same Minister quoted above saying in July 2018 of the Green Paper proposals that he was ‘determined to drive this programme forward as quickly as possible with the ultimate ambition for national roll out’.

Insofar as children and young people feature in this White Paper, it is largely in respect to the law on detention and inpatient care.

Undoubtedly, detention issues required addressing and those proposals have been well received but this impacts only on a minuscule number of people compared to the widespread and growing mental health challenges affecting so many children, young people and adults.

The White Paper as it stands represents a sad scaling down from the Green Paper vision of widespread reform to stem the tide of large-scale and growing mental health deterioration especially amongst children and young people, part of the trajectory, further fuelled by reducing levels of physical activity and health, towards the next generation becoming the least healthy adult population in the UK in living memory.

The narrow perspective of the 2021 Johnson White Paper may be best described as polishing the edges of continuity.

Parliamentary support for the Green Paper approach
It is to be assumed that if the recommendations of the Green Paper are intended to persist at all, this will be via the familiar limited trialling of strategies or in the form of ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan.

At Westminster, however, Parliamentarians have continued to press for the adoption of ‘Green Paper-style’ approaches. Some examples:

It was left to the now Backbench Theresa May MP, responding to the Statement of the Secretary of State, to introduce a dissonant note on the White Paper: ‘I fear though, that the legislation might not be on the statute book until 2023. Meanwhile, GPs and hospitals caring for my constituents tell me that there is an increasing problem of mental health and increasing numbers of people with mental health problems, particularly young people,’ https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2021-01-13a.329.0

Robert Halfon (Harlow, Con, Chair of the Education Select Committee) to the Secretary of State for Education the Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP, 18th January 2021:

‘…While schools are closed and children are remote learning, mental health worries for millions of children have rocketed, as highlighted by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and others. Will my right hon friend work with charities such as Place2Be to put mental health counsellors in all schools now, so that children can access support whenever they need it and their attainment levels will not suffer even further?’
 Munira Wilson (Twickenham, Liberal Democrat) writing in ‘Politics Home’

‘The availability and access to counselling in schools would be a lifeline to many young people, allowing them to get the support they need before they reach crisis point…….The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to invest in the future by prioritising access to counselling to children and young people who are already dealing with so much…

’ https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/the-pandemic-has-taken-its-toll-on-the-mental-health-of-our-young-people-we-can’t-just-ignore-it?

Baroness Fall (Con): Questions for Written Answer, tabled on 12th January and due for answer by 26th January:

To ask her Majesty’s Government what percentage of referrals of children with mental health issues referred for treatment from (1) GPs and (2) other health professionals, have been treated through child and adolescent mental health services since 23 March 2020; and what was the percentage of such referrals from 23 March 2019 to 22 March 2020.’

Queries and discussion points that stem from the omission of the 2017 Green Paper ethos and content in the January 2021 White Paper might include the following:

  • What help will the new legislation afford a child or young person before they are in crisis? The White Paper leaps straight to emergency inpatient treatment and misses all the steps beforehand that could have prevented the emergency from happening. Also absent is the great swathe of professionals in the community such as play therapists and counsellors prior to detainment in a hospital or secure setting
  • The Green Paper of 2017 commits resources to the recruitment of therapists, supervisors, training teachers in mental health awareness and ‘puts schools and colleges at the heart of (our) efforts to intervene early and prevent problems escalating.’
  • The Green Paper system to facilitate Mental Health Leads in schools with links to parents and carers with promised Mental Health Support Teams to be supervised in cross-departmental spirit by NHS Children and Young People NHS staff is missing
  • The Green Paper focused on the ‘right help in the right setting’ on early intervention and school-based therapy and support. This differs sharply from the White Paper concentration on ‘invasive’ or ‘other medical treatment’ in an inpatient surroundings
  • There is no recognition of the value and existence of the current workforce in schools to include clinically trained therapists and professional counsellors
  • There is no reflection of the plans in the Green Paper for teacher training and support when dealing with emergent mental health problems in schools
  • If there is little support available for children and young people experiencing mental health problems before they enter crisis, what therefore is proposed for ‘afterwards’ when a young mental health inpatient is discharged? Therapists and counsellors are needed in schools as a matter of statute (not option) both for early intervention, prevention and recuperation after a crisis to help a child to regain health and resilience and go on to thrive in school as is their right
  • A gap is perpetuated between the initial worries of a concerned parent, carer or teacher and a full-blown CAMHS referral. What about the crucial ‘in-between’ stage where the services of trained teaching staff, on-site play therapists and counsellors can make the difference and avert a full-scale inpatient stay?

The call for mass urgent action
Without a determined and concerted effort, there is a real risk that the Green Paper proposals will be ‘sometime, never’ and now is the time for action.

The aim of the action is to press for ‘Green Paper’ inclusions into the current White Paper and to build a concerted, determined campaign for the Green Paper proposals to be enacted, either through the White Paper or otherwise.

It is not the intention of the APPG or of the meeting to define precisely what organisations or individuals might wish to say. Each will have their own perspectives, and variety in approach will be an important factor in distinguishing the campaign from a standardised template letter-writing campaign.

It is however important to act swiftly.

Key links
The White Paper is available here
The Green Paper is available here.
APPG reports 10, 12 and 14 available here.

Who to approach
In essence, write to Rt. Hon. Matt Hancock MP (Secretary of State for Health and Social Care) at mb-sofs@dhsc.gov.uk and copy in every political contact you have including:

I look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Kind regards

Phil Royal
Head of Secretariat
https://fhcappg.org.uk
@fhcappg

Mapping adventure playgrounds in the UK

The Playwork Foundation is attempting to compile a current database of adventure playgrounds, knowing that there have sadly been many closures in recent years. We also want to extend the scope of the data to cover the whole of the UK. 

We are asking members and supporters to help us to review the attached spreadsheet – compiled by Mick Conway when he was at Play England, and last updated in 2017.

Download the spreadsheet here

If you have up-to-date, accurate information on adventure playgrounds in your UK region that differs from the information on the spreadsheet, please contact Ali Wood:  aliwood@blueyonder.co.uk

Image: Meriden Adventure Playground

All-Wales Playworkers Forum, 2020

by Simon Bazley

The All Wales Playworkers Forum has been running since 2007. Orginally established by Play Wales to provide a forum for those working in adventure playgrounds it has evolved to meet the needs of the sector.  The Playworkers Forum is run by a dedicated steering group of playworkers, for playworkers.  In the past a number of regional play associations took it in turns to administer the event with our collective aim being to keep the costs as low as possible, whilst bringing as many playworkers as possible together to share information, network and recharge our batteries.  More recently, with the sad closure of the vast majority of the regional associations, Play Wales have taken over administration of the event on behalf of the sector, with the steering group working hard to keep things fresh and exciting for all participants from year to year.

Over the years we have toured around Wales, from as far south as the Gower Peninsula to as far north as Hawarden.  We’ve made temporary homes in orchards, willow globes and big tops and generally we have almost always had the weather on our side.  Anyone who’s ever attended will be fully aware of how much of a special event it has become in the playwork calendar.  As our infrastructure has changed here in Wales, the forum has also been opened up to anyone from across the UK and it has brought playworkers together to share their unique experiences and support each other.  The event has always been an overnighter, with participants camping out under the stars and often sat up into the small hours gazing at the glowing embers of our fire and putting the world to rights. 

Over the years we’ve been lucky to attract some of the best playwork trainers, speakers and academics and they have all really helped to make the event what it is.  We tend to have a blend of theoretical and practical sessions, normally focussed around an emerging or current hot topic.  One of the annual highlights is without a doubt the ‘Annual Playwork Games’ hosted by Martin King-Sheard.  Two teams of goblins and elves compete in a head to head to find out who will be crowned champions for the year ahead.

This years event was somewhat different from previous years, due to the lockdowns that sadly made meeting in person impossible.  Instead, to ensure that we maintained continuity we all came together on 24th June 2020 for an online book club that was organised and facilitated by Play Wales.  It was so much of a success that they are now continuing these for free as a monthly professional development opportunity for play and playwork professionals in Wales.  Each month they select a freely available online paper, article or other publication relating to play and playwork for you to read and then you can join an hour’s discussion and reflection on the content.  All Book Club meetings are held on the Zoom online meeting platform.  More information is available here.

In the first book club, participants discussed the Play Wales guidance paper ‘dynamic risk management of common but potentially hazardous play behaviours’.  This paper was written by Mike Barclay, Dave Bullough and Simon Bazley.  The paper is available for free download here.

The event was facilitated by Martin King-Sheard and Marianne Mannello from Play Wales, who also ran a ‘Q and A’ session with one of the papers authors, Simon Bazley.  The successful event was then followed by an online version of the playworker games where contestants competed to find out who would be crowned champions for 2020.  It was a close call with competitors racing around their houses to undertake a series of challenges and games.  In the end the mighty elves came through victorious once again, just beating the goblins in the last game.

Anyone interested in attending future events should keep an eye out on the Play Wales website as we hope to be back to meeting in person once again in 2021 if local and national restrictions allow. 

Simon Bazley

Researching playwork in the pandemic

Dr Pete King of Swansea University is researching the playwork field’s response to the pandemic and has two opportunities to get involved.

Adventure Playgrounds

Dr. King is looking for anyone involved in adventure playground to take part in a study on how adventure playgrounds have been adapted since post-lockdown measures were put in place in July 2020.  The research study will involve a short 20-30 minutes interview using Zoom.  If you would like to take part, please contact Pete at p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk where you can be sent more information about the study.  The research study has ethical approval from the College of Human and Health Science at Swansea University.

After-school clubs or holiday playschemes

Dr. King is also looking for anyone involved in afterschool clubs or holiday playschemes to take part in a study on how you have adapted since post-lockdown measures were put in place in July 2020.  The research study will involve you to take part and complete a short survey which can be accessed here.


For more information, about the studies please email p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk

The research study has ethical approval from the College of Human and Health Science at Swansea University.

Questions to a playworker…

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Adele Cleaver trained as a playworker in Birmingham back in 2010. She calls herself “a nomadic Brummie” who after dabbling in playful adventures and community work in Leeds, London and Birmingham and Ghana, Portugal, Brazil, Uganda and Kenya now resides in Bournemouth on the south coast of England with her 4-year-old daughter and husband. 

In November 2019 she started writing her first book which she describes as a part-memoir, part-manifesto on living a life full of play.  She writes “accidentally stumbling into playwork was going to be the best voyage I was ever going to embark on”.  We asked her a few questions about her playwork journey.

How did you become a playworker?

I think I was born a playworker. It just took me a long time to realise my way of being could also be a profession. My home was like a free play environment; a laidback pair of almost hippies for parents with 4 children, over 12-year age gap each with their respective friends over to play, and a multicultural backdrop beyond our doorstep. My mom was a teacher though openly criticised “the system” and longed for the 6 weeks holidays and my dad worked in Social Inclusion for the NHS so I was brought up to live inclusively, be weary of hierarchy and play freely. I went to the University of Leeds to study International Development because when I was 18 I naively thought I could save the world. I moved back to Birmingham and worked at a local youth project as a Youth Worker where I bumped into Laura Watts one of the radical women who founded Dens of Equality. She worked in the building next door,  and took me under her wing because the youth project just wasn’t rebellious enough for me. After a few months of bid-writing and setting up family-led play projects around Birmingham, Laura sent me off to play with Ali Wood and Sue Smith and they turned me into a proper playworker with a capital P and a certificate to prove it.

Are you working on a play project in Bournemouth?

Yes, currently myself; I am my own play priority! The first few years of motherhood and juggling the chaos that a tiny new life brings reminded me that I needed to play more. Playful parents breed playful children so I’ve been prioritising us at home.

But even before motherhood, I took a rest from play when we moved out of London in 2014; not intentionally but because playworker jobs didn’t seem to exist down here. I needed work, couldn’t afford to be fussy so without giving it much thought ditched the play.  I was an Autism Support Worker for a few years before I had my daughter and always tried to work more playfully, but there was no real understanding of play in the organisations I worked for. I felt I had become very institutionalised so I contacted The Prince’s Trust and set up a greetings card business with their support to learn new skills and feed my own creativity.

When I was pregnant we very almost moved to Bristol because I knew we could live more playfully there as a new family but I had fallen in love swimming in sea at the end of our road. So we stayed put and have started rooting here. I often described Dorset as a “play desert”. Apart from Fernheath Play as the little oasis, there isn’t much opportunity for playwork here. After I had my daughter I did Admin at a creative youth project locally in Bournemouth. I could see the glaringly obvious gap in the service provision; these young people weren’t accessing community play as children so they were being referred to us through CAMHS because there are no early intervention projects. I couldn’t handle office work so I left and decided to focus on building up Play here.

So now I am setting up, very slowly, a Community Interest Company called Real Playful. I am running a series of Family Nature Play sessions in collaboration with a local community garden this winter. I am super excited that so many families local to Boscombe are interested; all the workshops were fully booked within days.  Then my next big job is to source playful people and train them up as playworkers so I am currently completing a very tedious application for employability funding. I’m really just relying on my book to become an international bestseller (any agents reading, please call me!!), I’ll be made a millionaire overnight and voila! I can fund all sorts of magical community play projects here, there and everywhere.

Where is your favourite place to play?

Hmmm, it varies. This year I have really genuinely loved being at home, playing in my PJs, all day with my daughter. Lockdown was good for us in that sense because I am a sociable being, and I like to be out and about, but the unstructured, timeless play got priority over my need to be with people. I thoroughly enjoyed being locked away in our own little adventure playground; it was necessary escapism! But if you’d asked me last year I would have said outdoors in the community. Big outdoor community play, mixed ages, multigenerational, loads of loose parts, street closures of festivals of play, neighbours laughing together,  cups of tea being brought out onto the doorstep.  I love the big colourful pop up play sessions I used to create with Parks 4 Play in Birmingham. It was physically demanding work, lugging tonnes of resources around Kings Heath park but it was so magical. That’s the sort of play I want to bring to Boscombe.

Where do you play outdoors?

Well we don’t have much of a garden except a little front hedge area which is big enough for a mud kitchen and my bicycle.  I am not complaining, we live opposite a small charismatic Victorian park and 800m from the beach! 9 miles of glorious sand and a view over to the Purbeck Hills. I’ve always lived in cities and this is the closest I have ever lived to nature; life is good here even though I can only experience vibrant community play in my imagination…. I must remind myself that good things come to those who experience vibrant community play in their imagination!

I still really love going back to Brum and playing in my parent’s overgrown garden when I played as a child. I’m a proper city kid through and through, in terms of my exposure to diversity, multiculturalism and the arts, but I played and played and played in that garden and have a lot of happy memories. For as long as I remember my parents have fixed everything, and kept things ‘just in case they will be useful to fix other things….’ so their garden has always been full of loose parts. It is great, but also kind of a strange time-warp-come-parallel-universe to see my daughter explore freely with all the random stuff I did thirty years earlier.

If you could live in any era, when would you choose?

When people could play and cycle out on the roads without it being dangerous. I joined the Playing Out Activator group at the start of the year, just before lockdown and was so excited to hear of all these communities regularly playing out. And then through lockdown I was campaigning for “Quiet Streets” to be our “legacy of lockdown” in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP Council) but Highways wouldn’t give us permission. It is so frustrating; without much publicity over 30 residents had expressed an interest, around 10 streets had self-organised stewards, signs and safety kits, but the powers-at-be just wouldn’t give the green light. It is so obvious to me that community playfulness is good for everyone; my council don’t use the same glasses  I do.

What is your favourite word?

I am a linguist so I have 3! In English “Chaos”. Quelquefois (French for “sometimes”) and Bochechas (“cheeks” in Portuguese).

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Ohhh good question! An author, an artist and an architect. I think I’m almost there. I have just finished my first book, just need to get it published to make me a “real author”. Everyone is an artist, and those with confidence capitalise the A to make them official Artists and I build splendid dens so I guess that makes me an Architect. If I could go back to university I would definitely study urban design, architecture or planning; something to build more community play spaces in cities. Maybe I will go back to university…. Who knows?!

Finally, tell us a little bit about your book.

It is a part-memoir, part-manifesto about prioritising playtime for new parents and gifting our children unstructured family time.  I write from my heart about inclusion, playful encounters in playwork settings, my own childhood play, playful parenting in Cuba and Montreal, miscarriage and multiculturalism.

Connect with Adele

therealplayfulmama@gmail.com

Facebook – Real Playful – Pop Up Community Play

Instagram the_real_playful_mama

Twitter @Adeleplayworker

And if you have any connections to the literary world please help her to circulate her proposal!