Play sector struggles to comply with the EYFS

Children & Young People Now - 28/05/09

Playworkers offering out-of-school provision for children as young as five have struggled to implement the new curriculum for children under six due to its stringent definition of play.
Play England and sector skills council SkillsActive were due to publish in-depth guidance on how playworkers can work with the EYFS without compromising the values of the profession, the Playwork Principles (CYP Now, 5-11 February). But there is now a lack of consensus over whether this guidance will ever be published.

SkillsActive claims it is still going ahead with guidance. "We're working with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and Ofsted to make it workable for playworkers," said Paul Bonel, the council's head of playwork.

But Play England's director Adrian Voce was unable to guarantee the EYFS could work for playworkers. "The Playwork Principles are solely about initiating play and letting children respond to that. And that does seem to conflict with definitions in the EYFS regarding planned and purposeful play and learning developments," he said.
But he added: "We can't publish anything that interprets a statutory framework unless the government backs it."

The DCSF said it is still working with SkillsActive on guidance, but reiterated that the EYFS must be delivered through planned and purposeful play and a balance of adult-led and child-led activities.