Play England appointed to support national play strategy.

Play England, 13/06/2008

Play England will support and challenge local authorities receiving funding under the Government's new Play Pathfinder and Playbuilder programmes.

As announced in the Children's Plan in December, all top-tier local authorities in England will receive around £1m to improve and develop their free play areas for children aged 8-13. In addition, 30 Pathfinder authorities will receive an extra £1m to build a new adventure playground or adventure play park and to implement other elements of the national play strategy launched in April with the consultation document, Fair Play. Play England will make immediate contact with the 20 Play Pathfinder and 43 Playbuilder authorities already allocated funding

Play England's role, working closely with Government Offices in the regions, will be to support local authorities' delivery, provide advice on good practice, promote support for the strategic measures of the play strategy, build the capacity of the voluntary and community sector and provide progress reports to the Department.

Play England is part of the National Children's Bureau. It has nine regional offices, from which it supports the Big Lottery Fund's Children's Play initiative. An early task will be to produce guidance on design principles for outdoor play areas, followed by a revision of its landmark Planning for Play guidance on producing and delivering area-wide play strategies.

Minister for Children, Kevin Brennan said: "Children need more and better places to meet their friends and have fun so I am delighted to announce that Play England will be helping us in delivering more playgrounds and more exciting and innovative play for children, as set out in our consultation Fair Play.

"As the national support body, Play England will support local councils in delivering our £235 million play investment programme. Play England have huge experience and expertise in this field. They have a thorough knowledge of play and the key stakeholders in this sector, and a clear methodology and implementation plan to support authorities.

"Being able to burn off energy in unstructured play is an important part of growing up and maintaining a healthy weight and life. Under our play investment programme, children will get new and exciting adventure playgrounds, including 30 new adventure playgrounds and up to 3,500 play areas for our children.

"The capital programme is a big part of our Children's Plan strategy to help improve the lives of children in this country and I want councils to work with Play England to make rapid progress on delivering the new and better play areas by 2011."

Play England's director, Adrian Voce said: "We are delighted to have been awarded this important contract. It will be a privilege to support the government's bold ambitions for children's play and to work with local authorities to help them offer more and better play opportunities.

"This funding and the wider national play strategy should see children's play become central to both children's services and local planning frameworks for years to come. Building on our work with the Big Lottery Fund, this new contract confirms both the importance of a national support body for that process, and how far Play England has come."