“What has happened to the right to be pointless? Play is not for anything. That is what playground design should be about”.

Maisie Rowe.

Mud is the paint of childhood

IRELAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND

Barnardo’s National Children’s Resource Centre
Carry a wide range of information on all aspects relating to children.
www.barnardos.ie
ncrc@barnardos.ie

Belfast City
Useful example of a local authority play policy including key play values.
www.belfastcity.gov.uk/playpolicy.htm

Children in Hospital Ireland
Provides advice and information to parents and professionals and promotes understanding of the benefits and need for play for children in hospital. Children in Hospital Ireland recruits, trains, screens and places volunteers to provide recreational and diversionary play for child patients. Also promotes the therapeutic work and the employment of hospital play specialists.
www.childreninhospital.ie
info@childreninhospital.ie

Children's Research Centre, Trinity College, Dublin
Publishes research on children's issues, including "Public Policy on Children's Play In Ireland: An examination of central and local government policies on children's play in public areas", produced with the Centre for Social And Educational Research, Dublin Institute of Technology.
ccentre@tcd.ie

Children's Rights Alliance, Dublin
Promoting the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Ireland.
4, Upper Mount Street, Dublin 2.
Tel: 01 6629400 Fax; 01 6629355
info@cra.iol.ie

Dublin City Childcare Committee
Community and educational advice to parents and childcare providers in Dublin.
108 James Street,
The Digital Hub
Dublin 8
Tel: 01 5424102
stephen@dccc.ie
www.childcareonline.ie

Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management (ILAM Ireland)
Run seminars and training workshops in aspects of play and sport in Ireland.
info@ilamireland.ie
Website: www.ilamireland.ie

Irish Landscape Institute
The professional body for landscape architects in Ireland. Members design parks, open spaces, residential and school landscapes, gardens and playgrounds. Will provide a list of members on request.
www.irishlandscapeinstitute.com

Irish Pre-school Play Association
Provides advice, support and training for the pre-school movement in Ireland
Tel: 014630016
www.ippa.ie
info@ippa.ie

ISPCC Children's Consultation Unit
Provides advice, consultation and practical support to organisations wishing to develop children's consultation structures and mechanisms.
www.ispcc.ie
ispcc@ispcc.ie

National Children’s Nurseries Association
Produced the excellent publication, “We Like This Place” – Guidelines for Best Practice in the Design of Childcare Facilities, 2002.
www.ncna.net
info@ncna.ie

Office of the Minister for Children
Implementation of the National Children's Strategy and the National Play Policy
St. Martin's House, Waterloo Road, Dublin 2.
Tel: 012420000
www.nco.ie

National Play Resource Centre
A joint project of Sugradh and the IPPA to be a focal point for information on play and to assist the play development officers in local authorities.
www.playinireland.ie

PlayBoard, Northern Ireland
Working for the child's right to play throughout Northern Ireland. Programmes include the PlayCare Initiative which has set up 117 playclubs throughout the Province, a Business Development project to establish after school provision among the business community, and a play work training unit to NVQ standard, among others.
www.playboard.co.uk
kidsplay@playbrd.dnet.co.uk

PlayShare
PlayShare provides training in Ireland for early years workers, parents and teachers, playworkers and managers.
playshare@iol.ie

Playground Management Services
Carries out independent post-installation inspections and risk assessments of new playgrounds, skateboard areas, multi-use games areas and indoor soft play centres. Also annual inspections of existing playgrounds and disability access audits through the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). Runs certified training workshops on playground inspection and maintenance. Provides advice on developing play policies and child-friendly communities. Designs environmental play areas as ‘Living Playscapes’.
rwebb@indigo.ie
www.playsafety.ie

Britain

Article 12
Voluntary children's rights organisation, run by children and youth. Attractive website.
www.article12.com

Article 31 Action Network
Supports children's direct participation in planning and policy making in play and recreation, cultural life and the arts. Publishes Article 31 Action Pack and a useful newsletter.
www.playtrn.demon.co.uk/a31.htm

Children's Play Council
Aims to raise awareness of the importance of play in children's lives and the need for all children to have access to better play opportunities. Involved in the 'Home Zones' initiative to reclaim residential streets for children's play. Recently published 'Best Play' What play provision should do for children' which is required reading for all involved with child's play! Best Play can be downloaded from this site. The CPC produce the free bulletin 'PlayToday'.
www.ncb.org.uk/cpc/

Children's Play Information Services, National Children's Bureau
Runs an excellent reference library of play related material
cpis@ncb.org.uk

Fairplay for Children
Campaigning since 1971 for the child’s right to play. A lively site with lots of information, including downloadable guidelines such as Organising a Playscheme and Child Protection in Playwork. This site also includes excellent information on adventure playgrounds. An excellent directory of play organisations.
www.arunet.co.uk/fairplay

Free Play Network
Encouraging free play for children with great ideas and inspirational projects.
www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk

Gainplayground
An award winning play and leisure area developed by a community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Very inspirational.
www.gainplayground.co.uk

Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management (ILAM)
Supports training in playing field, sports pitch and parks management.
www.ilam.co.uk

Kidsactive
UK charity promoting play for disabled children which runs six adventure playgrounds in London. Training and information service and useful publications.
www.kidsactive.org.uk

Learning Through Landscapes
Research and publications on the design of school grounds as gardens and nature areas to bring positive changes in schools and students. Useful publications list with videos and books.
www.ltl.org.uk

London Play
Supports and co-ordinates out of school play services and campaigns for all London children's right to play. They have a very instructive website.
www.londonplay.org.uk

National Children's Network
Voluntary body aiming to educate everybody about children's rights.
www.children'snetwork.freeserve.co.uk

Fields in Trust, formerly theNational Playing Fields Association, NPFA.
Promotes standards relating to playing fields and play spaces. play safety, playwork education and information on play.
www.npfa.co.uk

Mindstretchers
An organisation to promote exciting experiential preschool learning in the outdoors, with nature play, training and items for pre-school work. Blows open the current paralysis in pre-school 'education'.
www.mindstretchers.co.uk

Play England
Play England aims for all childrena and young people in England to have regaular access and opportunity for free, inclusive and local play provision. It provides advice and support to promote good practice and works to ensure that the importance of play is recognised by policy makers, planners and the public. It is part of the National Children's Bureau and is supported by the Big Lottery Fund.
www.playengland.co.uk

Playlink
A national charity working with play projects, local authorities, national voluntary organizations, schools and government, addressing key issues in children’s play. Produces a range of publications and free papers to support service providers.
www.playtrn.demon.co.uk
info@playlink.org.uk

Play Scotland
Play Scotland works to promote the importance of play for all children and young people and campaigns to create increased play opportunities in the community.
www.playscotland.org

PlayShare
PlayShare provides training in Ireland for early years workers, parents and teachers, playworkers and managers.
playshare@iol.ie

Play Train
UKs leading specialist playwork training agency providing high quality training and consultancy for organisations working with children.
team@playtrn.demon.co.uk

Play Wales
The national organisation in Wales promoting children's play with advice, guidance and support. Play wales are involved in organising the IPA World play Conference in cardiff in 2010.
www.playwales.co.uk

RoSPA - Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Europe's largest safety organisation. RoSPA carries out independent annual and post-installation inspections of playgrounds to ensure that playgrounds meet the European safety standards for equipment and surfacing (ISEN 1176 & 1177 in Ireland), together with risk assessments of playgrounds. RoSPA also publishes booklets and information sheets on aspects of playground design and management. The information sheets can be downloaded from
www.rospa.co.uk from which one can also order the RoSPA booklets.
The RoSPA playground award scheme has been launched in the UK and Ireland. One award is for playground operators and the other is for the quality of the playground itself. A Gold Award was won by the Library Road playground in Dun Laoghaire run by the Dun Laoghaire Youth Council.
For details on the award and how to apply see
www.rospa.com/playwards


The RoSPA contact for playground inspections, and playground management training in Ireland can be contacted at rwebb@indigo.ie

SPRITO
Key providers of playwork training in the UK. Produced the National Strategy for Playwork Education and Training.
www.playwork.org.uk

The Sensory Trust
A national UK charity working in partnership with key organisations to promote best practice in inclusive design techniques in public open space.
www.sensorytrust.org.uk

Wild About Play
Managed by Playwork partnerships at the University of Gloucester, the group promotes the concept of natural play for children through visits and workshops.
www.playwork.co.uk/wildaboutplay

INTERNATIONAL

European Network of Child Friendly Cities
Promoting the rights and interests of children and youth within local communities. Exchanges experience and good practice on a range of child related issues.
www.childfriendlycities.org

IPA- International Play Association: Promoting the Child's Right to Play
Promoting the international exchange of experience and research and raising awareness of Article 31 of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child. The only worldwide, multidisciplinary organisation devoted to the promotion of the child's right to play. Journal and newsletter on website plus a bulletin board.
www.ipaworld.org

Planet Earth Playscapes
Rusty Keeler's amazing website on creating natural community built play and learning environments for children. Playground design at its best and includes many Scandinavian examples.
www.earthplay.net

Natural Playgrounds
Ron Kings site on creating natural play areas full of inspiring ideas.
www.naturalplaygrounds.com

For Frode Swan's amazing and comprehensive website on natural play areas

http://home.c2i.net/swan/

Key Publications on Children’s Play

Understanding Play

Ready, Steady,Play! A National Play Policy. Office of the Minister for Children, Hawkins House, Dublin.
Ireland produced the first written play policy in the world. It sets out the value and role of play in child development and underpins all local authority play provision in Ireland. Copies from Govt. Publications Office, Sun Alliance House, Molesworth St. Dublin 2.

Teenspace: National Recreation Policy for Young People. Office for the Minister for Children 2007. From Govt. Publications Office.

A Playworker’s Taxonomy of Play types. Bob Hughes. Playlink.Drawing on the research on play and child development, this paper identifies fifteen distinct play types and illustrates the significance of these for the child.

Child’s Play: its importance for human development.Peter Slade. Kingsley, 1995.

Grounds for Play: A Report on Policy and Provision of Children 's Playgrounds by Local Authorities
Margaret Webb, Dublin Institute of Technology, School of Social Science, 1443-149 Lr. Rathmines Rd. Dublin 6. 1997.

Play Environments: a question of quality. Bob Hughes. Playlink.
Stimulates debate about what quality means and how to achieve it in the context of public provision for children’s play.

Public Policy on Children's Play in Ireland. An Examination of Central and Local Government Policies on Children's Play in Public Areas.
Richard Webb. The Children's Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin and the Centre for Social and Educational Research, Dublin Institute of Technology, 1999, Dublin.

Reared in Captivity: restoring the freedom to play. Playlink conference papers discussing the impact of adult fears on children’s play opportunities. Playlink. 1999.

The Excellence of Play. Janet Moyles, ed, Open Univ. Press. 1994

Children’s participation and communicating with young people.

Article 31 action pack: children’s rights and children’s play. PlayTrain
Changing Places - Children's Participation in Environmental Planning.
Eileen Adams and Sue Ingham. The Children's Society, London, 1998. Over 20 case studies of children's participation in planning.

Children’s Participation from tokenism to citizenship. Roger Hart. UNICEF. 1992
Communicating with Children and Adults: interpersonal skills for early years and playwork. Pat Petrie. Arnold. 1997

“Everybody Here?” Play and Leisure for disabled children and young people. Pauline Shelley, A Contact a Family survey of families experiences in the UK. Contact a Family. London, 2002. ISBN 1874715386.www.cafamily.org.uk.
Reports on a survey of over 1,000 parents of disabled children about three main areas of provision: local mainstream facilities, such as parks and playgrounds, swimming pools, after school and holiday clubs and major attractions.

“Hello are you listening?” – Disabled teenagers access to inclusive leisure. Pippa Murray. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 2002
How to Talk so Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids will Talk. Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. Avon Books.

Listening to Young Children: the mosaic approach. Alison Clarke and Peter Moss. National Children’s Bureau. 2001.
Providing Best Practice in Planning, Design and Management for Play

Planning for Play

Design for Play: A guide to creating successful play spaces. Aileen Shackell, Nicola Butler, Phil Doyle and David Ball. Play England. 2008. This is probably the best recent book on playground design with many examples of good practice.
It may be downloaded or ordered from www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications

Environments for Outdoor Play: A Practical Guide to making Space for Children. Theresa Casey. Paul Chapman Publishing. 2007. A practical book to support the development of imaginative play spaces. Ideal for play worker, after school groups, parents and designers.

Nature Play Ideas for Forestry Commission Sites.
There are four downloadable reports from the Forestry Commission in the UK who are developing natural play opportunities in recreational forests. These include:
Nature Play: Simple and fun ideas for all
Growing Adventure - A report on a project to develop the FC's activity around children's play and leisure. Central to the project are two interconnected ideas: that nature, adventure and challenge are part of the essence of woodland sites and make them ideal places for children to play, and that free play is a valuable developmental and learning process for all children.
Design Guidance for Play Spaces:
Rope Swings, dens, treehouses and fires.
www.forestry.gov.uk/england-play

The Outdoor Playspace Naturally for children birth to five years. Sue Elliott ed. Pademelon Press. 2008. This is a superb book on creating natural play spaces for early years children. Australian examples can be adapted for our own situation. You will never be satisfied with boring creche play areas again. ISBN 9781876138271.

Best Play - What Play Provision Should Do for Children.
NPFA/ Children's Play Council. 2000. One of the best current publications on play. Includes a list of play objectives that may be used for quality assessment and a strong case for investing in play.

ISEN 1176 Playground Equipment and Surfacing: 2008. CEN. The European safety standard for playgrounds. Copies from NSAI, Glasnevin, Dublin.

Action for Play: a good practice guide for developing out of school play. PlayBoard. 1992

Child's Play: Facilitating Play on Housing Estates. Rob Wheway & Alison Millward, 1997, Chartered Institute of Housing, Octavia House, Westwood Way, Coventry CV4 8JP, UK.
Studies how children play in housing areas and provides guidelines for architects in designing child-friendly housing layouts.

Children's Outdoor Play in the Built Environment: G. Coffin. London, National Children's Play and Recreation Unit. 1989.
A Handbook for all Who Design, Plan or manage Residential Neighbourhoods.

Designing for Play. Barbara Hendricks. Ashgate.Abingdon. 2001. 276 pp. Ł45. ISBN 07546 13208

Go Wild at School: A step by step guide on how to create a wildlife garden on school grounds. Patrick Madden. School Wildlife Gardens Assoc. Dublin.
A wonderful compendium of ideas for transforming the school grounds from a liability to a rich learning resource. Scoil Treasa Naofa, Donore Ave., South Circular Road, Dublin 8. Tel: 01-454 1899.

It Doesn’t Just Happen – Inclusive Management for Play. Philip Douch. Kidsactive. (PIP guidelines series 1). London. 2002. pip@kidsactive.org.uk.
Guidance on how to create and improve policy and practice, including examples of good practice.

Making Sense: Playwork in Practice. PlayLink, 2001.
Examines a series of case studies through ‘Best Play’ quality assurance guidelines.

More Than Swings and Roundabouts - Planning for Outdoor Play.
Issy Cole-Hamilton. Children's Play Council. London. 2002.

Design for outdoor Recreation. Simon Bell. Spon. London 2001.

Natural learning: The life history of an environmental schoolyard. Robin Moore & Herb Wong, MIG Communications. Berkeley, CA: (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 432 122) 1997.
From a tarmac wasteland to a rich natural school garden. This book will change your ideas on schools, education and playgrounds.

Playground Games 1: a practical handbook with guidance notes. Jean Parker. thresholdWorks. 2001.From playshare@aol.ie

Playground Management and Safety. D. Potter. National Playing Fields Assoc. London. 2001

Playgrounds: The Planning, Design and Construction of Play Environments,
P.Heseltine & J.Holborn. Mitchell, London, 1987

Playscheme ’98: how people in a rural community set up and ran the Maam Children’s Playscheme.

Grounds for Sharing: a guide to developing special school sites. J. Stoneham. Learning Through landscapes. 1996.

Maam Children's Play Scheme. Jean Parker. Threshold Works, 1999. From playshare@aol.ie

Providing for Children's Play in the Countryside. Countryside Commission for Scotland. 1984

Risk and Safety in Play: the law and practice for adventure playgrounds. Playlink.

RoSPA booklets:
These booklets are available via www.rospa.co.uk

• A Guide to the European Playground Equipment and Surfacing Standards (free) assessing Risk on Children’s Playgrounds



• Basic Guidelines for Wheeled Sports Equipment on Children’s Play Areas – skateboards and in-line skating.



• Developing the Children’s Playground – a basic management guide (free)



• Growing Spaces for Play – The value of play in the natural environment



• Maintaining Facilities in Commercial Premises – Inspecting indoor and outdoor playgrounds, inflatables and rides.



• Playgrounds for Children with Special Needs



• Regular Inspections of Children’s Playgrounds



• Safety Recommendations for Recreational Facilities for Young People (including Multi-Use Games Areas)