Fair Play
for Children
for the Child's
Right to Play
WHO
WE ARE, OUR ACHIEVEMENTS
We
were founded in 1972 by Trevor Huddleston
CR after the deaths of 2 boys by drowning
in an East End London canal because there
was nowhere safe for them to
play. Fair Play
has been at the pioneering edge of play,
many ideas and issues started here went on
to become mainstream issues, with new
organisations taking up what we started.
OUR
ACHIEVEMENTS INCLUDE
1970's
- UK's
first National Play Information and
Advisory Service
- this free service continues
- Make
Waste Space Play Space Campaign:
Turning marginal land into play areas
- Towards
Safer Playgrounds:
Campaign and parent resource
- Parents
Playground Safety Checklist
- Towards
Safer Adventure Playgrounds
- Why
Lock Up Our Schools:
Campaign for use of Schools for play
schemes
- Multi-cultural
Play Pack
1980's
- Rural
Play Pack
- Children's
Act and Play Conference
- Restore
Urban Aid Summer Play funding Campaign
and Meeting
- successful
- Initiated
proposal for National Voluntary
Council for Children's Play
- developed into Play England
1990's
- Launched
PlayAction
- our quarterly journal (Now replaced by
our online
2x weekly Fair Play for Children
News)
- Environment
and Play Conferences
- Launched PlayAction
Guides which developed into a range of
publications
- now online in our Publications section
- Child
Protection in Playwork Pack
- Enabled
access to Police Checks for Voluntary
Groups
- part of a pre-CRB national pilot
- A
Fair Deal for Our Children Campaign
- highlighting inequalities between
local government expenditure on adult
leisure and children's play, work
continues
- Home
Zones concept first proposed in UK by
Fair Play, based on Woonerfs
in Holland - many rolled out since
across UK
2000's
- Providing
access to Criminal Records Checks since
launch of CRB in 2002 and
prior to that in a Home Office pilot
from 1994.
- thousands of enhanced checks completed
for organisations
- Represented
Children's Play interests on
working party which set up the Vetting
and Barring Scheme
- Launched
new website with
news service, online library,
publications etc
- Child
Protection Training Events throughout
the country
- aimed at smaller voluntary bodies
- Curfew
Watch
- monitoring unfair blanket curfews on
children and young people in the UK
- Ban
the Mosquito Anti-Teen Device
- action to prevent its sale and use in
the UK, ongoing work, we'll make
Government and
Councils listen!
- Anti-Social
Behaviour in Tower Hamlets?
- How
young people were treated in their own
Borough
- Stolen
Streets, Stolen Childhood
- The
loss of street play opportunities in
England over 4 decades
- Unfair
Play for Children
- How
Councils have cut children's play more
than any other area
- Playground
Survey
- How
many playgrounds are there is England,
how much space do they offer children?
- The
Compatibility of Acceptable
Behaviour Contracts with Article
6.1 of the European Convention on
Human Rights
- What
happens when children are accused of
anti-social behaviour
anonymously.
- Obligations
of Councils re Play and Youth
provision - publication
TODAY
-
Now we have returned to our
campaigning roots, currently
focusing on the fact that,
contrary to a widely-held belief
by local authorities, play and
youth workers etc, play and youth
work are statutory
obligations on Local Education
Authorities.
Fair Play's news service is second
to none, and we maintain a
free online library of
publications etc.
-
|
|
Give
Just £5 to Fair
Play for Children:
|
Go to
All
links are in yellow 0n this site
Children
need Freedom to Play
Children
need Play to Imagine
The
Right to be a Child
= The Right to Childhood
= The Right to Play
INDEX
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is
the World's most adopted Treaty, the UK has signed
it. Article 31 of the Convention states:
1. States Parties recognize the right
of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and
recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child
and to participate freely in cultural life and the
arts.
2.
States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the
child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and
shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal
opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure
activity.
Fair
Play for Children says Britain
should incorporate the UN
Convention on the Rights of The Child into
our national law
The Convention in full: Read
it HERE
HERE It's FREE
________________________________________________
CONTACT US:
32 Longford Road, Bognor
Regis PO21 1AG, UK
M 07488-265916
Skype:
FairPlayforChildren
________________________________________________
Fair Play 50
Fifty years ago 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 event 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 50, 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 50 is dedicated to making sure
they have first call - just consider how much money would be
saved, for example, if Councillors across the country gave up
their allowances .... At a very rough guess,
that would free up over £80 million a year.
After all, they stand voluntarily for office, they can receive
out-of-pocket expenses, but why should they also have an
allowance on top of that just for being a councillor?
During the year
ahead, FP50 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
This is my thirty-first year as National Secretary of Fair
Play for Children. I urge you to redouble the
fight for a Fair
Deal for Children's Play. Join Fair Play,
DONATE, campaign with us!
Yours Playfully
Jan Cosgrove
National Secretary (Proud to be)
"The good news
is, I just got reconnected with a fantastic
organization. .... Hands down, they have the most
comprehensive and up to date website I have ever
seen... Outstanding. Thank you Fair Play for
Children for being part of the good news…(even when
you are sharing bad news). I needed you today!"
empoweredbyplay.org
" Fair Play gives
excellent support around Play-work issues offering
leaflets and policy documents as well as up to date
news and information. Ideal for any organisation
offering play activities with children.
" cffc.co.uk
" 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. "
playireland.ie
|