Wales sets up play strategy

Last week the Welsh Assembly Government launched an eight-week public consultation that will inform a national play strategy for Wales.

The strategy is based on the principles set out in the 2002 Play Policy for Wales, which focuses on the importance of play as an elemental learning process in a child's life.

In September 2003, Jane Hutt, minister for education, set up a Play Policy Implementation Group to look at play in all areas of a child's life.

Led by Play Wales and Children in Wales, the PPIG is made up of members from the Welsh Assembly and campaigners from national play and children's organisations.

Their recommendations, which were influenced by the proposals set out in the Frank Dobson Review in 2002, have formed the basis of the national consultation document that was launched by Ms Hutt at the Museum of Welsh Life near Cardiff last week.

She reaffirmed the Assembly's commitment to play in revealing that it would be supported with money from the new early years fund announced last month.

'In the Assembly's draft budget we announced 50m of new funding for early years from 2006/07 to 2007/08. We will announce more details of how we will use that funding in due course, but play provision will be a core strand in our proposals for this funding,' she said.

The recommendations were presented to the cabinet sub-committee for children and young people on 1 November. After the public consultation, which runs between 10 November and 5 January 2005, campaigners are confident that the strategy will be adopted across Wales. The findings are due to be published in the spring.

Marianne Mannello, development officer for Play Wales, said, 'This is an historical step forward for play provision in Wales. We envisage this to be warmly welcomed in Wales because it's a shift in how we perceive children's play. It's not just about the funding, it's about acknowledging the child as an individual in its own right - and it's about recognising how crucial play is to a child's life.'

The play consultation can be found at www.wales.gov.uk/subichildren/toc-e.htmNoc.