The whole of the protection currently afforded to playground users in relation to civil and criminal law derives from that same legislation and relevant case law which protects us in every other aspect of our working, leisure and community lives. There is no specific ‘Playground Safety Act’ and this is interesting because, in contrast to […]
Category: Children’s Spaces
Playground safety in perspective
Setting aside the common experience of trivial injury associated with scrapes, cuts and bruises which are an inescapable part of childhood, interest in safety in playgrounds has not figured largely in expressions of community concern until quite recent times. The systematic collection and analysis of playground accidents and injuries is a comparatively recent phenomenon which […]
The current agenda
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the present surge of interest in play and playgrounds is why this should have become an issue. Within months, two different government departments have produced closely focused reports, each related to the New Opportunities Fund (NOF), Barnardos have funded a three-year ‘Better Play’ programme, the National Playing Fields Association […]
Child development and the importance of outdoor play
Children develop socially, intellectually, physically and emotionally in every aspect of their lives. It is axiomatic for early years practitioners and other professionals that play is a powerful medium for developing and expressing self-awareness, social learning, imagination, awareness of the world and physical skills. Play is, as Janet Moyles expresses it, a natural tool for […]
Playgrounds in Britain – a brief history
Towards the end of the nineteenth and throughout the twentieth century five successive and distinct phases or fashions in playground design can be recognized within the UK: constructed boat-shaped swings, ‘Witches Hat’ roundabouts and crash stop plank see-saws, all within a tasteful assemblage of formal flowerbeds, fountains, muzzle-loading cannon on plinths by the bandstand, surrounded […]
Razor blades and teddy bears – the health and safety protocol
Judith and John Hicks Editor’s introduction For many working fathers living in urban areas, large parts of the weekend are spent standing in the municipal children’s playground watching over their young children. These places provide a physical and social outlet for their children, an escape. This is especially important when they are living in confined […]
Public perceptions of children: interviews with adults
The relative paucity of children’s experiences in the UK, and the limitations they experience, suggest that, by default rather than by intention, we are hostile to children. This attitude is compounded by beliefs that children are a nuisance, an encumbrance, and above all the personal property and private responsibility of their parents. This sombre perception […]
Children in the UK and elsewhere
The trends that isolate children, re-create them as vulnerable, accident prone and in need of protection, and simultaneously exploit their market potential, are widespread, an inevitable off-shoot of contemporary consumerist societies. But thesetrends can nevertheless be questioned and challenged. Certain countries have always been more pro-natalist and more proactive in favour of children. One key […]
Childlore and childplay
The distinguished environmentalist Roger Hart summed up the changing nature of children’s lives in the cities of the industrialized world like this: their diminished freedom in space and time, the growth of mass media as an acculturating force at the expense of peer culture and local culture, a reduced contact with the natural world, the […]
Consuming children
On the one hand, children are perceived to be in a state of continuous exposure to unacceptable risk, to themselves and to and from others. On the other hand, we express serious concern that they will become couch potatoes, overweight, underexercised and solitary. Children now consume passively through TV, video and computer games, the thrills, […]