Welsh Government imposes new duty on local authorities over children’s play

Local authorities in Wales have until 1 March 2013 to prepare new “sufficiency assessments” under Welsh Government legislation that places a duty on councils to assess the sufficiency of children’s play and recreational opportunities.

The Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010, section 11, Play opportunities for children took effect from 2 November. The role of local authorities is outlined in the Play Sufficiency Assessment (Wales) Regulations 2012.

The Welsh Government stated that children have a fundamental right to play. It said: “Through this legislation we intend to make Wales a country where every child has a wide range of challenging and interesting opportunities to play and enjoy their leisure time.”

The sufficiency assessments will be used to develop local authority action plans “to improve play opportunities for all children across Wales”.

A spokesman for the Welsh Local Government Association said: “"The WLGA welcomes the commencement of the new duty, which will build on the proud track record that local authorities in Wales already have in providing play facilities and opportunities.

“We recognise the importance of children being able to access a wide range of safe, stimulating and challenging environments within their local communities. Such facilities contribute to the health and wellbeing of children and the introduction of the new duty will assist local authorities to further improve play opportunities, by helping to identifying any gaps in local provision."

Deputy Minister for Children and Social Services, Gwenda Thomas, said: "Wales is already leading the way on promoting children’s rights and the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. There is no more important right, than the right for children to enjoy the freedom and enjoyment of play.”

Keith Towler, Children’s Commissioner for Wales, said: "This is yet another world first for Wales. For such an ambitious vision to become reality, we need to ensure local elected members have adequate resources to fully understand and implement this new duty.

“During a period of financial constraint, play must not be seen as an added extra but rather as the right of every child."

Play and leisure is one of seven core aims in the Welsh government’s policy on children and young people. It “requires that all children and young people have access to play, leisure, sporting and cultural activities”.

Local authorities are told by the Welsh government that they should plan with their partners - including voluntary organisations - to provide play opportunities for children and young people. Youth support services should provide young people with their entitlement to accessible recreational and social opportunities, sports, culture, music and arts.

Neasa MacErlean