Borough-wide Play Strategy to be developed

Children, young people and families will help co-design the strategy, which will provide a clear vision for play in Lewisham and help shape future decision-making.

Evidence[1] increasingly recognises the importance of play in enhancing children’s quality of life, their wellbeing, and their physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. Where and how children play impacts their experiences, choices and relationships with people and the environment.

There are many excellent play facilities and programmes in Lewisham, and we are looking to build on these:

• We want all play to be as high-quality and accessible as possible.
• We need the views of children to be well-understood and to fully inform decisions.
• We are keen to strengthen connection between the different kinds of play in the borough.

Following a procurement process, the Council has appointed the charity London Play to develop a comprehensive Play Strategy for the borough. The strategy will aim to bring improvements by:

• Creating a new vision for play in the borough;
• Capturing the voices of children, young people and families;
• Providing an audit of current play resources; and
• Developing potential future models of play in the borough.

London Play has significant experience of engaging local communities about play. The strategy will be developed between January and April, and will be published after this year’s Local Elections.

Cllr Chris Barnham, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and School Performance, said: “Play is so important to a child’s happiness and development. It affects their attitudes and behaviour, which has a longer-term impact - on their own lives, but also on our community more widely.

“We want all our children and young people to thrive. Developing a comprehensive, borough-wide play strategy – co-designed with local children and families – will help us to address inequalities in access to quality play opportunities.”