Guide to Preparing Play Strategies

Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron with children in an adventure playground
Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron launched the Guide at an adventure playground in Hackney run by the charity KIDS

The Mayor's 'Guide to Preparing Play Strategies - Planning inclusive play space and opportunity for all London's children and young people' is a practical tool to assist local boroughs to meet the play and leisure needs of children and young people living in London. It sets out the basis for providing children with accessible spaces offering free, high quality, inclusive play opportunities throughout their environment - a need commonly identified by parents/carers as well as children and young people.

Guide to Preparing Play Strategies PDF
Guide to Preparing Play Strategies RTF

The Mayor said
‘Play and leisure activities improve young people's skills, confidence and self-esteem. Yet children, and often their parents, feel there are barriers that prevent them from taking part - particularly in cities. Creating space where children and young people can play is about more than swings and roundabouts. This new guide helps to put young Londoners at the heart of regeneration and I am determined that everyone involved with local and regional planning should work together to do just that.'

Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron said:
'This guidance helps local authorities to develop play strategies and means they are in a really good position to access funding for improvements that will make a real and lasting difference to children and young people.'

Developed by London Play on behalf of the Mayor of London, this guidance is a companion document to the Mayor's Guide to Preparing Open Space Strategies. It is also part of the Mayor's policy (London Plan, 3D.7) to work with strategic partners to protect and promote London's network of open spaces, and realise their value for communities and protect their many benefits, including children's play.

Consultation

The Mayor's draft Guide to Preparing Play Strategies was published in August 2004 for consultation, and comments were invited from children, young people and adults. The closing date for responses was 12 November 2004.

As part of the consultation, children were asked their advice on making London a better place for children to play. Here are some of their responses:

Make sure there's at least one park in every estate. Make it safe.
Keep London tidy
Make big toys cheap
Make streets where children can play
Free access to leisure centres
Better football grounds, swings and playgrounds
More activities after school. Closer activities to school. New things like different playgrounds.
More ramps and pools
More parks, fewer cars
Larger play areas
No bad people, more parks
More benches to hang out with my friends.

Next steps

The work doesn't stop now that the final strategy has been published: the Mayor has commissioned the next phase of work, the development of standards for children and young people's play and informal recreation provision.