Big Lottery Fund's Children's Play Programme widened access to play opportunities for children across England and helped to tackle social disadvantage
Big Lottery Fund committed around £123 million to supporting children's play since 2006 through its Children's Play Programme. The programme aimed to create, improve and develop children and young people's free local play spaces. The independent evaluation of the programme, conducted by Ecorys, shows that the programme widened access to play across England, raised the profile of play and provided many more play opportunities including ‘open access’ play areas.
The programme brought about a range of benefits for children, with 87 per cent of projects reporting improved levels of physical activity for children and 78 per cent of play portfolios strongly agreeing that children's independence and self esteem greatly increased as a result of the play opportunities.
The programme also paved the way for a period of unprecedented Government investment in the play sector and was widely thought to have contributed towards the 7.7 per cent improvement in children’s satisfaction with parks and play areas, as measured through the National Indicator (NI 199) in 2009-10.
A significant contribution of the programme was to champion the role and value of ‘free play’, with provision made available free of charge, and with children free to choose and free to come and go. The projects not only provided access to wider range of play facilities, but also gave children the freedom to take risks without coming to serious harm. A significant 89 per cent of play portfolios agreed children in their area had more opportunities to challenge themselves and take risks, and encouraged children to take part in more challenging activities that were not always open to them previously - such as den-building, fire-play and climbing trees. The benefits of this were widely reported around improving children's independence and self-confidence
A core aim of the Children's Play Programme was to overcome the multiple barriers to play faced by certain groups of children. For instance, children living in a rural or deprived area often reported having fewer play opportunities available in easy reach of where they live. The programme increased the number of permanent play spaces; funded the development of new outreach and mobile play facilities for children living in rural areas, and helped to build links with community organisations. The investment resulted in higher than expected levels of take up from children in rural or deprived areas in a fifth of participating local authorities.
Children with disabilities were also helped to access play spaces that meet their needs as well as disabled and able bodied children being encouraged to play together. The programme achieved this by developing playgrounds with specially adapted equipment and sensory play sessions appealing to all children.
The programme also played an important role in building the capacity of the play sector to develop play spaces and deliver play sessions. Despite the tough economic climate, 60 per cent of local authorities reported that at least part of the play portfolio would be sustained after the BIG funding ends. This was generally by accessing alternative funding streams or where community organisations or volunteers are taking responsibility and running the local play projects. However there remain particular concerns around future funding of specialist play provision for children with additional needs. The evaluators suggested that BIG continue to support children's play where opportunities arise within their other grant programmes.
For the full report see: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/er_cplay_final.pdf
Background for editors:
Big Lottery Fund's Children's Play Initiative was an investment of £155 million in play, with a key aim of raising the profile of play (see http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_childrens_play.htm). The Big Lottery define play as "…what children and young people do when they follow their own ideas and interests, in their own way, and for their own reasons". BIG have committed around £123 million since 2006 through its Children's Play programme that aimed to create, improve and develop children and young people's free local play spaces. The programme focused on the most deprived areas and provided funding for 351 local authority-led portfolios of 1,400 strategic projects delivered at a number of locations which form a cohesive strategy to achieving programme outcomes. Portfolios have been awarded between £100,000 to £3.4 million across capital and revenue funding. The evaluation assessed the impact of the Children's Play Programme and examined the difference that greater choice and control over play can have for children. It looked at what free play looks like in practice and what children’s experiences are; how barriers to play are being removed and communities are engaged through Play.
Ecorys was commissioned by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) in September 2008 to conduct a three year evaluation of the Children’s Play Programme. Ecorys is a highly-renowned, independent, employee-owned European research, evaluation, technical assistance and advisory company, with an 80-year history at the European level and over 25 years in the UK. The Ecorys group has over 500 highly qualified staff across our network of 16 European offices in 11 European countries, located in the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. Our mission is to improve public policy worldwide. We work on local, regional, national and international levels with clients in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. We work across the European Union, its neighbouring states, and in developing countries. Ecorys provides a full range of services, from research and policy advice, advisory work and training, to programme management, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, communications and dissemination. We provide these services across a number of thematic areas; social policy, equality and diversity, education and training, health, employment, culture, economic development, planning and international development. This breadth of application enables our local and regional work to benefit from a sound understanding of the wider national and international context in which it is located, and provides a sound base for our national and international clients because we understand the variety of local circumstances in which it has to apply. Ecorys was formerly known as ECOTEC Research & Consulting in the UK until our change of name to move into line with the wider Ecorys group, in October 2010.
For more information, please contact:
Laurie Day, laurie.day@uk.ecorys.com +44 (0)121 212 8877
Nicola Smith, nicola.smith@uk.ecorys.com +44 (0)121 212 8879
