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.
The Playwork Foundation 