Recent stories of swinging politicians are more likely to induce a Nick Clegg(over) joke rather than admiration, but Ed Balls and Andy Burnham's enthusiastic leaping on to a swing seems to have gone down well everywhere.
They were launching a consultation on a national play strategy and it was refreshing to see two men with power enjoying dealing with an issue that they had some personal understanding of because of their young families. We have often asked adults to reflect on their play as children and what it always reveals is what fun was had and how free and unstructured it was compared to now.
This launch follows on from the BIG Lottery's Children's Play Initiative and will incorporate, in Balls' words:
- looking at how £225 million is to be spent on thousands of new and renovated playgrounds over the next three years
- funding for 3,500 playgrounds
- creating 30 new adventure playgrounds for eight to 13 year-olds in disadvantaged areas, supervised by trained staff
Cadence has done great deal of consultation in play circles and its not obvious why when every English local authority has recently consulted extensively that it needs to be done again, but the money and taking of play seriously is still very welcome. Hopefully a national strategy will help secure the buy in of central departments like Transport and Communities, so that for example the new Eco Towns have play as a priority.
Some of the coverage:
your comments
Posts: 3
Reply #3 on : Sat September 10, 2011, 11:37:56
Posts: 3
Reply #2 on : Fri September 09, 2011, 12:52:57
Posts: 3
Reply #1 on : Thu September 08, 2011, 09:10:44
Write a comment
- Required fields are marked with *.
