We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make the provision of play services a statutory obligation for local authorities in the UK.”
Details of Petition:
“Recently, the Welsh Assembly voted to make play provision a statutory service for local authorities in Wales. We urge the Prime Minister to roll this out to the rest of the UK. Doing this will ensure that Local Authorities throughout Britain emulate those in Wales and provide a good play service for children and young people. It ensures investment in the next generation, and will help to combat the looming obesity crisis.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
Local authorities and their strategic partners have a responsibility to support children’s play and young people’s recreation as an aspect of their duty to co-operate under Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 and within the Every Child Matters framework.
The majority of District Councils will have developed a play strategy which will set out how they will be providing and maintaining local play opportunities for children. Many of these plans will have been revised in light of recommendations from the review ‘Getting serious about play’, jointly commissioned by the DCMS and the then DfES. One of the outcomes of this review was the creation of the Big Lottery Fund which made £155m available to fund play provision in England.
With the announcement, in the Children’s Plan, of the new £235m investment and the first ever national play strategy for England, all local authorities are expected to develop a strategy, in conjunction with their key strategic partners. Thirty local authorities have been identified to be Play Pathfinders, these local authorities will receive around £2m capital and around £500k revenue funding to deliver a minimum of 28 new or refurbished play areas and one staffed adventure playground per local authority.
The remaining authorities are Playbuilders and will receive around £1m Capital and around £45k revenue funding to deliver a minimum of 22 new or refurbished play areas per local authority. This will mean 3,500 new or refurbished play areas and 30 new staffed adventure playgrounds expected by 2011.
The Government does not have any plans to make the provision of play a statutory duty for local authorities.
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