Chris Martin - 29/07/10

There’s an old song that goes ‘for every season, turn, turn, turn …’, and it’s been a bit like that in the world of policy and politics recently. After the season of purdah when civil servants couldn’t talk to anybody about anything important, there was the election when everything was up in the air. Now ministers have claimed their territory and they and civil servants have started talking again to the rest of the world.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a case in point. Before the election we had been working with Play England, the DCSF and others to write a detailed jointly branded briefing paper on playwork and the EYFS. Post election, the newly badged DfE has said that now the EYFS is being reviewed, they can’t take this work forward. We should be thankful however that this review will be much more fundamental than the review proposed by Labour, and we will be having an initial meeting with Dame Tickell this week to discuss it.

Although many of the problems encountered by settings are due to interpretation, there is a basic tension between the EYFS and playwork principles and we want to see changes made as a result of the review process to make it easier for playwork settings. Any changes to legislation won’t happen til 2012, which is still a long time for settings.

I would like to think that the fact that we have had literally hundreds of conversations with employers and practitioners, have collected a solid evidence base on what the playwork sector looks like, and listened to what playwork is saying gives us a real weight when we talk to ministers and officials. We don’t just say what we think; we have the facts and views to back up our statements.

For example, our survey on the impact of the EYFS on holiday playschemes last year showed that thousands of children would be adversely affected. Our employer’s conference last winter reinforced the fact that the EYFS and Early Years Register (EYR) was still a huge priority, also consistently highlighted by our Playwork Education and Training Council for England. This helped persuade the department that there was a real case for clarifying the role of playwork and making policy decisions to make life easier for playworkers.

I got myself invited to an Ofsted board meeting to discuss the inspection issue, and a short while later their briefing paper was released. We’re still working on the issue of suitable qualifications for holiday playscheme staff, and that’s a harder nut to crack since there’s legislation involved.

We’re also constantly told that we need to work with partners on issues, so that’s what we do, whether it’s with Play England and Playwork Partnerships on Play Shaper or locally supporting employers (very successfully) to access funding for level 3 training. 

Our recently released report on the sector ‘Playwork People 4’ shows a huge need for playwork qualified staff, and this and the results from our consultation on the upcoming UK Play and Playwork Education and Skills Strategy 2011 – 2016 gives us a really good idea of what the sector needs and what they want us to do.

One of the messages that comes through loud and clear is that people want us to lead, and this is the basis on which we’ve been communicating with ministers and civil servants. Key issues are around support for qualifications and training in all sectors, and specifically for volunteers and community activists, and parents too! We need to get the message out and see playworkers playing more of an advocacy role as well as getting non-playworkers to champion our cause.

We will continue to lobby for playwork qualifications to be properly recognised as the only appropriate ones for playwork settings, and will be arguing that the success of the level 3 initiative should be rolled out even further to support frontline staff and include additional qualification levels. We would like to see a much bigger role for graduates too, and after finishing my first post grad certificate module at Gloucestershire I’m a convert!

We have been meeting with civil servants, who are being very supportive of the hard work we have been doing, and we are writing to ministers and arranging meetings. Although these are uncertain times we are working hard to keep the profile of playwork high and argue the case for the importance of (to quote the vision of our upcoming strategy) ‘A skilled, qualified and developing play workforce, whose practice is underpinned by the Playwork Principles, who provide high quality, accessible play opportunities for children and young people'.

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