Written question WQ86035

The Deputy Minister for Social Services and I meet regularly to discuss matters affecting children and young people. Equality of opportunities, such as inclusive play, are very important to us.

Both the Welsh Government and the playwork sector in Wales aspire to provide inclusive rather than accessible play, where able-bodied and disabled children are able to play together. This is supported by the Children’s Play Policy Forum and UK Play Safety Forum, who released a joint Position Statement this year supporting inclusive play.

In 2017, we funded Play Wales, the Charity supporting children’s play, to work with Alison John & Associates to develop the Creating accessible play spaces toolkit. The aim of the toolkit is to support local authorities, town and community councils, politicians at all levels, open space planners, housing associations and other playground managers to assist them in meeting the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.

When our Play Sufficiency Duty was commenced, we produced a toolkit with various resources and templates to support local authorities. This includes an access audit which can be implemented and adapted at local level. All of the tools provided in the toolkit are kept under review and have been informed by the Social Model of Disability, as is Wales: a Play Friendly Country the Statutory Guidance which supports the Play Sufficiency Duty.

The Statutory Guidance provides the vehicle for ensuring local authorities consider the diverse needs of their local communities. It sets out nine Matters local authorities need to consider. Three specific Matters relate to inclusive play:

• Matter B – Providing for diverse needs.

• Matter C – Space available for children to play.

• Matter H - Community engagement and participation.

In addition, the Play Sufficiency Assessment (PSA) toolkit criteria requires local authorities to promote initiatives to engage relevant groups in enhancing play opportunities for children in its area. Local authorities seek the views of disabled children and young people as part of this process, working with local communities to meet their needs. Consequently, we are not minded to set specific targets at this time. It is also important to note that the responsibility for playgrounds does not only rest with local authorities. Some town and community councils have been gifted play areas for example.

Since the Play Sufficiency Duty was introduced in November 2012, we have made £33.330m revenue funding available to local authorities to enable them to support the provision of play opportunities. For the financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, we awarded local authorities a total of £8m Covid recovery capital funding. The capital funding gave local authorities the flexibility to purchase large scale items and refurbish playgrounds and access to playgrounds; this was dependent on the priorities identified in their PSAs.

The Deputy Minister for Social Services has asked her Officials to provide her with a full update on each local authority’s response to the above Matters in the summary report of the 2022 PSA returns, which she expects to receive later this autumn.

I co-chair the Disability Rights Taskforce, along with Professor Debbie Foster, author of the Locked Out Report. ‘Children and young people’ has been identified by the Taskforce as one of the programme of work priority areas.