The Government wants to capture views from as wide a group of partners as possible during the Fair Play consultation period so please take a few moments to read the Fair Play consultation document, give your views on the consultation, and please encourage as many people to take part as you can.
There are two consultations, one aimed at children that ends on 18 August, and one aimed at adults that ends on 18 July.
On 20 May, the Minister for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, issued a joint statement with Andy Burnham, Minister for Culture Media and Sport, saying:
"We want all our children to have fun and be safe as they play. It is fundamental to the successful development of every child.
We want local authorities to give a high priority to supporting and promoting outdoor play, with play and public play space being seen as an essential characteristic of a healthy community.
We propose to make public space more child-friendly through a variety of actions including:
- placing a stronger focus on spaces for play in the planning system
- training for people who design and manage public space
- supporting local community ownership of space suitable for play
- supporting more positive relationships between adults and children in public space.
By publishing the Fair Play strategy we want to raise awareness of how we can all help children and young people to play. We want to promote discussion about how we could all do better at this and build a society with more and better opportunities for all children to play. We want to hear your views so please get involved and tell us what you want".
For more information on Play please see the website http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/fairplay/
