Play Map for planning playful places

The Play Map is an exciting new resource, developed by Play Scotland, that provides step-by-step guidance for creating more child-friendly communities in Scotland by strategically planning for play-friendly local areas. The Play Map has been developed to support Community Planning Partnerships to plan for playful places.

Play Scotland is a charity and membership organisation working to support children’s right to play. Remember your own favourite play memories? The fun, the thrills, the skint knees, the everyday adventures! We know that a lot of children in Scotland are missing out on these experiences.

Recent research for Play Scotland found that a third of parents feel they don’t play with their children enough and that today’s children are playing out less than previous generations. Compared with online play, parents saw greater benefits in their children playing outside. However, parents from more deprived areas listed the lack of safe local space, ‘stranger-danger’ and bullying as their main concerns, causing them to restrict their children’s outdoor play.

Scotland’s National Play Strategy vision is: ‘We want Scotland to be the best place to grow up. A nation which values play as a life-enhancing daily experience for all our children and young people; in their homes, early learning and childcare, in schools and in their communities’.

The Play Map provides practical guidance for community planning bodies to deliver this vision by:

• Committing to principles which support a child’s right to play
• Providing leadership through developing strategic priorities and appointing Play Champions
• Listening to children, young people, families and communities so that their views inform the proces
• Mapping existing provision and exploring gaps in current services and opportunities
• Considering effective approaches to developing play in communities and sharing effective practice
• Reviewing play’s contribution to locality plan

Play Scotland believes that ‘children and young people of all ages, abilities and interests, should be able to play in a variety of ways, in high quality spaces, within sight of their homes or within easy walking distance, where they feel safe, whether or not they are accompanied by adults’, and, most importantly, that children are satisfied with the play opportunities provided for everyday adventures!

Author: Marguerite Hunter Blair, Chief Executive

Photo Credit: Photo by Play Scotland

Organisation: Play Scotland

Email: Marguerite@playscotland.org 

Tel +44 (0) 7795954856

Marguerite will be a speaker at the 2016 Child in the City Conference. For more information regarding to conference please click here