Policy for Play

Responding to Children's Forgotten Right

Voce, Adrian, Adrian Voce

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781447319429
• eBook ISBN: 9781447319443
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Social Sciences

Play is fundamental to children's health, wellbeing and development. Yet in the modern world, their space and opportunity to play is under threat.

This is the first book to look in detail at children's play within public policy. Using the UK government's play strategy for England (2008-10) as a detailed case study, it explores states' obligations to children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the General Comment of 2013. It presents evidence that strategies for public health, education and even environmental sustainability would be more effective with a better-informed perspective about the nature of play and the importance of allowing children more time and space for it.

The book throws down a challenge to both play advocates and governments, to make effective policy that respects, protects and fulfils children's right to play as a priority. It is an essential tool for practitioners and campaigners around the world.

References

AA Motoring Trust, 2014, Facts about road accidents, www.theaa.com

Abbs, P et al, 2006, Modern life leads to more depression among children, The Daily Telegraph, 12 September

Abbs, P et al, 2007, Let our children play, The Daily Telegraph, 10 September.

Adler, F, 1908, The basis of the anti-child labor movement in the idea of American civilization, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 32, 22, Child Labor and Social Progress. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the National Child Labor Committee pp. 1-3

Adonis, A, 2012, Education, education, education: Reforming England’s schools, London: Biteback Publishing

Ainsworth, M D S, 1973, The development of infant–mother attachment, in B Cardwell and H Ricciuti (eds) Review of child development research (vol 3), Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1-94

APPG (The All Party Parliamentary Group on A Fit and Healthy Childhood), 2014, Healthy patterns for healthy families: Removing the hurdles to a healthy family, London: The All Party Parliamentary Group on A Fit and Healthy Childhood

Baldwin, J Mark, 1896, A new factor in evolution, The American Naturalist, 30, 354, 441–51, www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Baldwin/Baldwin_1896_h.html

Ball, D J, 2015, Observations on impact attenuation criteria for playground surfacing, London: Centre for Decision Analysis and Risk Management, Middlesex University

Ball, D, Gill, T and Spiegel, B, 2008, Managing risk in play provision, implementation guide (1st edn), London: Crown Copyright/National Children’s Bureau/Big Lottery Fund

Barkow, J, Cosmides, L and Tooby, J (eds) 1992, The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, New York: Oxford University Press

Battram, A, 2012, The PBI: ‘Pink Bicycle Indicator’ for play-friendly streets’, [blog], https://plexity.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/play-friendly-streets-the-pbi-or-pink-bicycle-indicator-one-of-my-key-ideas/

BBC News, 2008, Ministers go swinging into action, 3 April

BBC News, 2013, Ramsgate girl’s hopschotch grid ‘sparked Kent Police warning’, 9 May, www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-22475517

Bennett, A, 2012, 20 years since John Major’s 1992 election: A retrospective, The Huffington Post UK, www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/04/04/john-major-20th-anniversary-election

Bentley, T, 2003, The adaptive state: Strategies for personalising the public realm, London: Demos

Beunderman, J, Hannon, C and Bradwell, P, 2007, Seen and heard: Reclaiming the public realm with children and young people, London: Demos

Beunderman, J, 2010, People make play, London: Demos/Play England

Big Lottery Fund (BIG), 2005, Children’s play initiative, www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/global-content/programmes/england/childrens-play

Big Lottery Fund (BIG), 2008, Green spaces and sustainable communities, final report to BIG from Sally Downs Associates in collaboration with Alison Millward Associates, London: Big Lottery Fund

BIG, 2009, Big Thinking - strategic framework, London: Big Lottery Fund.

Blair, C, 2003, Speech at the launch of Making the Case for a Children’s Rights Commissioner for England, London: Houses of Parliament

Blair, T, 1993, On the record [radio] BBC2, 4 July.

Blake, W, 1789, Songs of innocence and experience (electronic edn, William Blake Archive, 2007), London: The British Museum

Blake, W, 1808, And did those feet in ancient times, in M Cox (ed), 2004, The concise Oxford chronology of English Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 289

Boulton, A and Jones, J, 2013, Hung together: The 2010 election and the coalition government, London: Simon and Schuster

Bowlby, J, 1969, Attachment and loss, vol 1: Loss, New York: Basic Books

Brown, S, 1998, Understanding youth and crime, Buckingham: Open University Press

Brown, M, 2001, Welcome to the ministry of fun, Tessa, The Guardian, 11 June,

Brown, F, 2015, Play and playwork: stories of children playing, talk at Towards Play Sufficiency Research conference, Wrexham, Wales, 11 May

Brown, F, and Patte, M, 2013, Rethinking children’s play, London: Bloomsbury Academic

Brown, F, with M King and B Tawil, 2007, The Venture: A case study of an adventure playground, Cardiff: Play Wales

Burghardt, GM, 2005, The genesis of animal play: Testing the limits, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press

Butler, P, 2003, Livingstone judged most influential figure in Britain’s public services, The Guardian, 10 September

Cameron, D, 2007, Making Britain the best place in the world for children to grow up, speech to launch More Ball Games, reported by The Guardian, 4 February

Campbell, R, 2004, Independence, at any cost, The Guardian, 5 November

Casey, T and McConaghy, R, 2014 The importance of access to play in situations of crisis, 18 June, [blog], www.ipaworld.org

Chamberlain, T, George, N, Golden, S, Walker, F and Benton, T, 2010, Tellus4 national report: Omnibus/Panel survey for DfE, DCSF Research Report 218, London: DCSF

Chief Medical Officer, 2013, Our children deserve better: Prevention pays, annual report, London: Department of Health

Children’s Commissioner, 2015, Why rights matter: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the work of the Children’s Commissioner for England, www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/learn-more/takeover-challenge

Children’s Play Council (CPC), 1998, The new charter for children’s play, London: The Children’s Society

Children’s Play Council (CPC) / National Playing Fields Association (NPFA) / Playlink, 2000, Best play: What play provision should do for children, London: NPFA

Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), 2014 State of children’s rights in England: Review of government action on United Nations’ recommendations for strengthening children’s rights in the UK, London: CRAE

Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), 2015, UK implementation of the Convention On The Rights Of The Child: Civil society alternative report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, England, London: CRAE

Clegg, N, 2010, Supporting families and children, Barnardo’s Lecture Series, 17 June, London

Cole-Hamilton, I, and Gill, T, 2002, Making the case for play, London: Children’s Play Council

Cole-Hamilton, I, Harrop, A and Street, C, 2002, Making the case for play: Gathering the evidence, London: Children’s Play Council

Cole-Hamilton, I, Greatorex, P, Jones, G, Croney, L and P...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Who’s who
• About the author
• Foreword by Roger Hart
• Prologue
• Introduction ‘To respect, protect and fulfil’
• one: ‘To play and to dream’ • Restoring play to the heart of the campaign for children’s rights
• two: ‘For a change’ • Finding the evidence for play policy
• three: ‘Advocates for play’ • Playwork’s place at the heart of the play movement
• four: ‘New opportunities’ • Lottery funding and the beginnings of public play policy
• five: ‘A vital and vibrant city’ • How devolved government in London set a benchmark for play policy
• six: ‘Making the case’ • The call for a national play strategy
• seven: ‘Things to do, places to go?’ • How play was overlooked by children’s services reform
• eight: ‘Getting serious’ • The national play review
• nine: ‘Lottery millions’ • The Children’s Play Initiative
• ten: ‘Dirt is good’ • The Play England project
• eleven: ‘The best place in the world’ • The Play Strategy for England
• twelve: ‘Playbuilders’ • Breaking the mould of the public playground
• thirteen: ‘Everyday adventures?’ • Austerity brings an end to play policy in England
• fourteen: ‘Skylarks and canaries’ • The legacy of the Play Strategy
• fifteen: ‘Children now’ • Responding to children’s right to play: conclusions and recommendations
• Epilogue
• References