A cross-professional training programme in improving opportunities for children's play in public space

What is the Play Shaper programme?

The Play Shaper programme, part of the government’s Play Strategy for England, will bring together professionals who plan, design and manage public space with children’s delivery partners, including the play sector.

Through attending the events and getting involved in subsequent training and support, delegates will gain a greater appreciation of:

• the importance of play
• the responsibilities of different professional roles in enabling children’s safe access to, enjoyment of and mobility around the public realm
• how play can help deliver other local priorities, for example increasing physical activity and developing sustainable communities
• what can be done to encourage children’s play within available powers, drawing on good practice
• the importance of cross-professional collaboration in achieving these ends.

The Play Shaper programme, funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, is being delivered by Play England, SkillsActive and Playwork Partnerships.

How to get involved

Please get in touch if:

• your local authority would be interested in being part of the pilot programme
• you are a training provider interested in being trained to deliver this programme
• you are involved in similar or related cross-professional training that could be linked to these events
• your organisation would like to be involved in advising on the development of the programme.

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Introduction and Purpose

Play Shaper is partnership project between Play England, as part of the National Children’s Bureau, the Sector Skills Council for Playwork, SkillsActive and the major play training provider, Playwork Partnerships, part of the University of Gloucestershire.  The project is funded by the Department of Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

The Project aims to design, develop, pilot and roll out a training programme that will bring together professionals who are involved in planning, designing, building, managing and maintaining public space and those who deliver children’s services, including play provision.

The Play Shaper programme will focus on the particular needs of children in the design, planning and management of public space. The aim is that participants will better understand the nature and importance of children’s play and the characteristics of good quality play space; and the tenets of good practice in delivering it.

The training will promote a greater appreciation of the responsibility of different professional roles in enabling children’s safe access to, enjoyment of and mobility around the public realm, as well as the

importance of cross-professional collaboration in achieving these ends.

The programme supports the aims of the national play strategy,

reinforcing a top-tier strategic approach to play and delivering a long-term change to the built environment and the management of open space. It will also aim to demonstrate to key audiences how improved play provision can support the delivery of other local priorities, including in particular the promotion of physical activity, as set out in Healthy

Weight, Healthy Lives and promoting local place shaping to support sustainable community development. As such the proposed programme will draw extensively from these policies, their underpinning evidence and the various guidance documents being produced to support them.

The programme will be delivered by a partnership of Play England, SkillsActive and Playwork Partnerships, working with skilled and specialist training providers from both playwork and other professional disciplines across England. It will be coordinated with the regional activities of Play England and SkillsActive to support local authority play partnerships, play pathfinders and playbuilders.

Playwork Partnerships Role in Play Shaper

Playwork Partnerships, under the guidance of the steering group and the other partners, will design and develop the programme and its materials, manage and deliver the pilot programme to Pathfinder authorities in the first year and establish a selection process and ‘training the trainer’ programme for regional training partners for the national roll out in years 2-3. It will project manage the national rollout, working closely with both SkillsActive’s and Play England’s regional centres.

The delivery of the programme’s first phase of development and delivery of training to play pathfinders and training for trainers will be by the playwork team at the University of Gloucestershire, drawing on expertise from HE Lecturers in playwork, NVQ Centre staff and the Playwork Partnerships training team.

In years 2-3 the programme will be delivered by a range of training providers in the different English regions who will be contracted after an open application and selection process and their mandatory participation in a specialist training for trainers programme. These will be selected for their access to and understanding of local networks and their influence with the professional networks to be trained, as well as for their understanding of play and issues relating to children and young people in public space.

Training may also be delivered by local authorities’ own training departments subject to them submitting to the training for trainers process and meeting quality control criteria.

For more information please contact:

Kelly Conibere - Training Administrator

Playwork Partnerships

University of Gloucestershire

Willow Lodge, Oxstalls Campus

Oxstalls Lane, Gloucestershire, GL2 9HW

Tel: 01242 714603

Email: kconibere@glos.ac.uk