Published: 27 February 2006
Lottery is Child’s Play
Children’s happiness and healthy development is at the centre of a £15 million partnership between the Big Lottery Fund and the Children’s Play Council.
The grant is the first to be awarded through the Lottery good cause fund’s £155 million Children’s Play initiative which is focused on improving and developing play opportunities for children in all areas of England.
The Children's Play Council (CPC), part of the National Children’s Bureau, has been awarded the grant to deliver the Play England Project, a major five-year development, to help local agencies in planning for play across their area by setting up a national support and development infrastructure across the regions.
The Play England Project is intended to cement the future of children at play by giving local areas the necessary backing and expertise to develop play strategies for improvements that will make a real and lasting difference to children and young people.
CPC has identified a clear need to develop play strategies that acknowledge the wider value of play to child development, health, social inclusion and community safety as well as its primary role in the enjoyment of childhood.
Stephen Dunmore, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund, said:
“Good play opportunities are crucial to the development of happy and healthy children.
This initiative will put play on everyone’s agenda by facilitating the promotion of a long-term, positive change in attitudes towards the importance of children’s play.
We’re excited to be working with the Children’s Play Council to deliver this project as they have the expertise to enable local agencies to develop play strategies, and put in place the right partnerships and processes at the local level.”
Adrian Voce, Director of the CPC, said:
“This announcement marks the culmination of several years’ intensive work within the sector to make the case for children’s play. It is a clear sign that at last we, as a society, are taking play seriously.
This investment should help transform play opportunities across the country, to the benefit of children and the communities in which they live.”
This partnership will set up regional support and development services to help the identification, development and dissemination of best practice and promote the long-term strategic and sustainable development of play provision as a free service to children.
The Big Lottery Fund has already announced allocations totalling £124 million for local authorities in England under the Children’s Play programme.
The Play England Project will aid those agencies in developing play strategies as the basis for applying for funding from the Children’s Play programme. Grants will be awarded to projects that are self-directed, creative and fun.
This main programme will open to applications in March 2006 and first grants will be announced in autumn 2006.
There will be four deadlines for the submission of applications:
· July 2006
· November 2006
· March 2007 and
· September 2007
Application packs and guidance notes will be available in March 2006.
Further information
BLF – Children’s Play
Children’s Play Council
Q&As
National Children’s Bureau
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