NO BALL GAMES   -  Guardian documentary 2020

Our children should be  .....

   

       

PLAYING!

Not enduring this .....

   

Still less these calamities

 
  

The Child's Right to Play - The reasons Why

Why does the world's  most successful Treaty, the UN Convention on the Rights of The Child, include the Right to Play?   Why is so much emphasis given by educators, doctors, researchers etc to this? 

It is because for the Child, its Play may be 'messing about', Fun. seemingly aimless, something every child does without thinking whether it has to or not, but it is also just about the most important thing it does.   Play is about Learning, about trial and error, about discovery, about relationships, indeed about exploring the world around it.   Not for nothing has Play been called 'the child's natural business'.   

Imagine a world where suddenly something stops all our adult activity in its tracks.  Who would do the 'next thing' and what would that be?   Children might just Play?   They do in every conceivable situation and circumstance as soon as they are able, they colonise, explore, learn, adapt.        

And yet, we adults have ensured that much of the child's play environment has been degraded and compromised - residential streets occupied by the car,  children's freedom to play restricted by fears, intolerance, adult agendas and pressures.   Their health is compromised as is their healthy development.   

The role of Fair  Play for Children is to keep that right and obligation before society, and to encourage people to fight for its advance.  We seek your support, membership, ACTION.      We are a Campaign for The Child's Right to Play - JOIN US!

Fair Play for Children News

The World's Children - their lives, their futures, the World at Play.         One of the best sources for news about Play and Childhood. 

There are few, if any, publications anywhere about children and childhood, that match the breadth of FPfC News, sourced from many parts of the world, - major global news sources, research facilities, the UN and its family, community organisations and more.   FPfC News focuses on all areas of childhood, but especially Play because we believe that Play is the path to the fullest development of the child.    We are proud of this contribution to knowledge about Childhood and the world of Children and their Play.  We update each section monthly, if you have stories etc you wish to submit or let us know about, contact fpfc1972@gmail.com

photo: courtesy of The Guardian 2022

Fair Play for Children News is published regularly in four sections

Children's Play & Youth Work

including Children's Play, Sport, Arts, Recreation, Cultural, Music, Youth Clubs, Youth Work

Children in the World & Society

including Children and Young People in Society, Children's Rights, Juvenile Justice, Child Slavery and Labour, Child Soldiers

Child Health Wellbeing & Education

including Children's Health and Wellbeing, Education, Early Years Development, Child Care

Research into Childhood

including Medical Paediatric and Other Research

The Fair Play for Children Online Library is being updated and can be accessed by clicking the title or in the right column - it forms a natural partnership with FPfC News Research into Childhood, focusing on Children's Play, Child Rights, Child Protection and Youth Work.  It contains articles, papers and video.  Please contact us if you know of material we can add

   FAIR PLAY IN ACTION

What Fair Play is doing, its policies and projects, how you can participate.   Click on titles to access. 

OUR CURRENT CAMPAIGN

What the Law says your Local Education Authority should be doing about Children's Play and Young People's Recreation

Fair Play's information note explains their duties and obligations.

Youth Provision Review - Make it Article 31 compliant

Fair Play's response to Government Review of Statutory Guidance re Youth Services calls for changes in the operation of existing law which imposes duties on Local Education Authorities which many are failing to observe

Fair Play 50    1972-2022

On 31st July 1972, a letter appeared in 'The Times' in the wake of a tragedy - two boys aged nine and seven drowned playing in a tin bath in an East End Canal in London .... for want of somewhere safe to play.

A LETTER TO 'The Times':      How Fair Play started

That tragedy led Bishop Trevor Huddleston CR, then Bishop of Stepney, to pen an angry reproach in the press, he had known both boys and their families.   It was not right, he insisted, that such a deficit should have led to their deaths.

With the same zeal that marked his defiance of apartheid in his native South Africa (from which he had been exiled for his views). Father Trevor launched this campaign, soon supported by The Duke of Edinburgh, it was, and is, known as Fair Play for Children.

Its mission is to achieve that safe, but challenging, play space for every child, as now stated in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

At Fair Play, how do we measure progress towards that aim?   Though much has been achieved, overall can we say that there has been much movement?    Yes, the community and voluntary sector in the UK has led the way, against huge odds mainly thrown in their way by the statutory sector.   Oh, plenty of platitudes, 'nice thoughts', but when we examine the record of government at all levels, it has been a sad tale of non-achievement, even of hindrance.  

To be blunt, always the first target for cuts especially by councils, often running counter to their statutory obligations, which goes all too often unchallenged from society.   Fair Play has been and is running a campaign on this aspect, to get the law updated so that councils are held to account by the Government. YOU CAN HELP IN THIS!


MPs and Ministers, local government chiefs, councillors etc all KNOW the importance of Play, or they pay it enough lip service that, were that translated into action and resource, we'd by now have a Play-scape for Heaven on earth.


At this time, so much has been lost, trashed by cuts, our children and young people have been betrayed.

Not very celebratory?    Well, what is stated does not diminish one jot the years of hard work and dedication people and organisations have contributed and continue to do so, Fair Play is dedicated to making sure they have first call.

We will be aiming to secure legislative changes through dialogue with the Government.   You can help by aiming letters at the your MPs to get their support.   Keep in touch via this website.  We urge you to redouble the fight for a Fair Deal for Children's Play.   Join Fair Play, DONATE, campaign with us!

Fair Play for Children needs your help NOW.    Please donate ANY amount

OR  Make a Direct Donation from your Computer:  

Name:   Fair Play for Children    Sort Code  77-91-28    a/c no  87251160