You are invited to attend the Annual Open Meeting of The Playwork Foundation:
Wednesday 19th July
11am – 1pm, via Zoom
Our Open Meeting will be an opportunity for members and non-members alike to find out what The Playwork Foundation has been working on over the last year and also to hear from each of the national playboards of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the latest insights and progress from all corners of the UK.
To receive the link, please sign up to The Playwork Foundation mailing list.
It’s an exciting time for both the playwork sector in the UK and The Playwork Foundation, and we want you to be part of the conversation and the journey.
We know, through attending conferences like Eastbourne and IPA, that talking to playworkers and other practitioners working with children and young people in other settings can be greatly beneficial to our ongoing professional development.
Sarah Wilson, who has been a playworker for 14 years, is aiming to bring those valuable opportunities to connect with each other out of the conferences and into the real world. Her aim is to link up frontline playworkers, managers, volunteers, and trustees of adventure playgrounds in an informal environment. The first of these get-togethers will be on Thursday 18th May 2023, from 7:30pm, at The White Swan, Highbury.
“When I first started out, I was keen to meet other Playworkers but quickly found that everyone was scattered and not really in contact. I hosted some Hackney playwork drinks about 8 years ago and it was a great chance for frontline playworkers, from different projects, to get together.
Now, as well as being Senior Playworker at Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground, I also carry out annual health and safety inspections for other adventure playgrounds as an APIA-approved inspector and get the opportunity to meet playworkers at playgrounds who all say the same thing- they’d love to be in contact with others. I thought it was time to resurrect the Playworker socials! “
Sarah is hoping to hold more gatherings across London in the coming year, with the next gathering pencilled in for June in the Richmond area. Playworkers from other areas are also welcome to attend and Sarah would be happy to support/encourage other gatherings in other places.
For more information, or to let Sarah know you intend to go along, please email sarah@sarahwilsons.com.
Don’t forget, Trustee Penny Wilson (AssemblePlay) and Chair Siôn Edwards (Y Fenter | The Venture) host a virtual reflective practice sessions most weeks via Zoom. Join the mailing list to receive the link and regular provocations on all things play and playwork.
A month ago, playworkers from across the UK (and beyond!) converged on the chalky southern coast of England for the Eastbourne Playwork Conference – the 20th of its kind, organised by Meynell Games. This year saw the conference move eastwards along the seafront to The Lansdowne hotel – a family-run hotel that proved to be a welcoming and comfortable home for us throughout conference. The Playwork Foundation were pleased to be represented by many of our trustees as workshop facilitators and delegates, and we also put together special newsletter and survey for the occasion. To celebrate this as the first leg on “the road to Glasgow”, for the IPA conference later this year, we also made the decision to make membership to The Playwork Foundation FREE for 2023/24 – so JOIN US TODAY!
Trustee Ali Wood’s delivering her ‘A question of quality’ workshop in the Martello Room – part of Tuesday’s ‘The Legacy of Bob Hughes’ track
As always, the conference was a great opportunity for playworkers to come together, share ideas, and reflect on our practice and, particularly for The Playwork Foundation, to consider the future of our profession. Our trustees led a number of workshops that explored varying aspects of playwork, including the role of playworkers in supporting children’s wellbeing, the challenges and opportunities facing playwork in the UK, and even some wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, from Simon Rix that gave The Doctor and the TARDIS a run for their money. Another prominent theme and focus of thought throughout conference was Bob Hughes. A special area of reflection, with music stands displaying pieces of his work and a memorial book, occupied a part of the hotel and an entire track of the conference plan was dedicated to his legacy. Many of those workshops not on this track also paid tribute and utilised Bob’s theories and words to contextualise and drive discussion.
Trustees Penny Wilson, Siôn Edwards, Barbara McIlwrath, Ali Wood & Jackie Boldon
The Playwork Foundation too had our own track on Wednesday of the conference. In the morning, trustees Anne-Marie Mackin and Jackie Boldon led a workshop on what it is to be a playworker in the UK today. Accompanied by fellow trustees Siôn Edwards, Ali Wood, and Barbara McIlwrath, and a number of our members, Anne-Marie and Jackie navigated discussions including: an update from Outdoor Play And Learning (OPAL) Founder and Director, Michael Follett, including their development of 3 new playwork training initiatives; an update on the Undergraduate BA Hons in Childhood Development and Playwork at Leeds Beckett University from Ali Long; Trustee Barabara McIlwratth shared the playwork courses on offer at Belfast MET and shared some of the barriers facing providers in Northern Ireland – Barbara is also the playwork convener for UNITE the union which prompted discussion about pay and conditions for playworkers, including maintaining the link with JNC payscales; Nat Scyner of Ffit Conwy, Wales, shared the issue of short-term and inconsistent funding from Welsh Government and suggested it should instead be linked to the three year cycle of Play Sufficiency Assessments – there is also a lack of accessible introductory training beyond L2APP; finally, Trustee Simon Bazley gave an update on the National Occupation Standards [for playwork] (NOS) Scoping exercise he has recently carried out on behalf of the UK NOS Consortium – of the many observations, one was the importance of infrastructure funding for England.
Attendees of Playwork in Progress LIVE with Trustees Penny & Siôn
Finally, in the afternoon, Chair of The Playwork Foundation, Siôn Edwards, and Trustee Penny Wilson, presented a special hybrid edition of Playwork in Progress to wrap-up our time in Eastbourne and begin to reflect on the many talks, presentations, and discussions that had taken place over the previous two days. You can join Penny and Siôn most weeks for their free online reflective practice session by clicking here.
Photo from @LBUPlayworking – the Twitter account for the Childhood Development & Playwork team at Leeds Beckett. Tweets are mostly by Ali and Nicky though not always!
They may be a bit biased, but Tilia Guilbaud-Walter probably put it best with “Best 3 days of the year! Thankyou all of you”. We couldn’t agree more! The conference succeeded in delivering upon expectations and, if anything, exceeded them. The diversity of speakers and workshops, and the incredible venue, really made Eastbourne 2023 a delight! Thank you to Meynell and all his team for their incredible contribution to the sector. We look forward to supporting the next conference and seeing you in Eastbourne in 2024 (if we don’t see you in Glasgow first!).
At a time when the cost-of-living is a real concern, investing the time and money into attending conferences can be a very tough and, for some, impossible decision. With Glasgow just around the corner, we are all too aware that however many playworkers couldn’t make it to Eastbourne, there will be just as many (if not mroe) who cannot reach Glasgow.
To help lower the costs, IPA Cymru are offering their members bursaries to attend. Applications are open until 14/04/23 – email ipacymru@playwales.org.uk to request an application form.
For playworkers not in Wales, please consider contacting your own branch of IPA (if you are a member) or your national play board if you will struggle to finance your attendance at IPA Glasgow 2023.
I was in Liverpool on Saturday night when I heard the sad news that Bob Hughes, play theorist and activist (to say the least), had left us. Despite knowing that Bob had been ill for some time, I still gasped in shock that the play world had lost another giant.
Though many of you will be joining the Play England AGM from 2pm to 5pm, where I am sure tributes and kind words will be offered in Bob’s memory, we will be holding our usual 4pm slot for Playwork in Progress and invite you to join us and share your thoughts, experiences and memories of Bob in our usual “around the campfire” style.
PopUpAdventurePlay are organising their annual Campference (online) on 15th Oct from 7am to 11am, co-hosted by the Black River Innovation Campus in Vermont, USA with multi-lingual presentations from Costa Rica, Turkey, Hong Kong and more. There will be a pre-campference get together tomorrow (15th Oct at 7am)
Join us this Friday (14th Oct 2022) from 11 to 1 for our next Playwork Open meeting with a focus on summer playschemes. Share your summer highlights or listen to stories from across the UK. Send an email to our chair Sion Edwards to get the zoom link: sion@playworkfoundation.org.uk
SAVE THE DATE! 🗓️ The next Open Meeting of @PlayworkF will be 14/10/22. We want to give playworkers, wherever they are in the world, the chance to share their memories of Summer 2022. Join @pennywilson this coming Monday to find out more!https://t.co/b3n58QaZsspic.twitter.com/IphD41LSZf
Opportunity for a Chief Executive: It’s all about a child’s right to play Play England’s vision is to for England to be a country where everybody can fully enjoy their right to play throughout their childhood and teenage years as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 31 and our Charter for Children’s Play.
We have a unique opportunity for someone to be front and centre of Play England in achieving that vision. It will be the first time we have been structured in this way with a CEO as the only paid position working alongside a group of enthusiastic voluntary Trustees. The expected time commitment will equate to 1 day per week and will attract remuneration of £10,400 pa. Accountable to the Chair and Trustees, most of the CEO’s time will be managing fundraising and acting as an external figurehead and spokesperson for Play England as well as making sure all our operations are running successfully.
The right candidate will be experienced as a CEO or Chair of a national organisation with a good understanding of the play sector in the UK and will likely hold a play qualification. They will have proven experience of fundraising for a national or large charity. Comfortable acting as an external spokesperson, including with national media they will feel right at home influencing large organisations including government.
As you would expect they will demonstrate flawless tact and diplomacy as well as superb communication skills.
For a detailed job description see here. Applications should be made by sending a cv and covering letter to info@playengland.org.uk by 17.00 on 7 October 2022. Interviews will be held remotely on 18/19 October 2022.
Play England AGM, Monday 21st November 2022 at 2pm All Play England members are cordially invited to the Play England Annual General Meeting via teams.
This is an opportunity for members to gather and to reflect on our work towards England being a country where everybody can fully enjoy their right to play throughout their childhood and teenage years. We are excited to be joined by Helen Dodd is a Professor of Child Psychology at the University of Exeter. She is an expert in child mental health with a particular interest in the development of childhood anxiety disorders. Helen currently holds a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, which funds a program of work examining the relationship between children’s adventurous play and mental health. Helen regularly writes about children’s play and contributes to public discussions about the role of play in supporting children’s mental health.
The AGM will take the form of a webinar and there will be some brief presentations followed by the opportunity for questions. We expect to record the webinar for those who cannot be present on the day. If you would like a proxy vote, please email info@playengland.org.uk
Agenda for the AGM: Welcome from Chair of Trustees, Anita Grant Apologies for absence Notification of proxy votes Approval of Minutes of 2021 AGM Matters arising from the Minutes Adoption of Annual Report Adoption of Accounts Appointment of Independent Financial Examiner Election of Trustees Any Other AGM Business Presentation from Helen Dodd Minutes from the 2021 AGM can be downloaded here
If you are not already a member of Play England you can join via our website.
This article was originally published July 2016 and has been updated to better reflect the UK context.
Photo: Felix Road Adventure Playground
Playwork is an essential component of adventure playgrounds, a form of staffed provision renowned the world over as offering children the best opportunities to play within a dedicated, managed setting. Most adventure playgrounds are situated in areas of high density, limited open space, multiple deprivation, or a combination of all three. They offer children who are often otherwise seriously disadvantaged, enriched play opportunities within a safe, stimulating environment and an empowering, supportive community.
On-going austerity, cuts to public services and the generally unprotected nature of play provision is nevertheless leading to the closure of many of Britain’s existing adventure playgrounds. This article sets out some of the reasons why such action is bad policy, bad economics and bad for children and families; why retaining adventure playgrounds is a good use of public resources.
The Playwork Foundation 