Hansard

I am pleased to open for the Labour Party in this debate and to welcome the publication of the Scottish Government’s play strategy and action plan. I have worked with children and young people and have been involved in developing services to meet their needs, and nowadays I take great pleasure in watching my grandchildren play, so I can say with certainty that play is a serious subject.

Scottish Labour agrees that there is a need for a play strategy—there was a pledge to that effect in our 2011 manifesto. Play forms a fundamental part of a child’s educational, social and emotional development, and we look forward to it becoming a priority in action as well as in word.

I particularly welcome the plan’s inclusive vision of improving the experiences of all children and young people, irrespective of disability or background.

Some people may not realise how important play is. For those who do not know much about the issue, it can be easy to dismiss play and question why it merits a strategy at all, since we all know that children like to play and, indeed, will play given the slightest opportunity. However, play can have a huge impact on children’s confidence, their quality of life, their educational attainment and their health and wellbeing.

Nowhere is that more evident to me than with my own grandchildren. Four-year-old Keir’s favourite day at nursery is the weekly outing with his class to the local community woodland, to play, explore and learn outdoors. He comes home with lots to talk about, eats double helpings at tea and goes to bed tired and happy. My three-year-old granddaughter Aila loves going with her mum and her chums to the soft play centre, where she can climb, run, jump and fight, and in so doing develop her social skills, confidence, co-ordination and fitness. Two-year-old Gracie so loves jumping in muddy puddles in Princes Street gardens that I had to go to the shops to buy her some dry clothes—but that is a gran’s prerogative. Each child learns skills and life lessons as they play, which will help them to develop and grow into healthy and happy young people and adults.

The United Nations endorsed the value of play by including the issue in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stipulates that children have the right to relax, play and join in a wide range of cultural and other recreational activities. The Education and Culture Committee continues to debate the extent to which the UNCRC should be incorporated in Scots law, and I look forward to further consideration of the issue when the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill is debated by the Parliament.

I am sure that members of all parties agree that investment in children and families is one of the most crucial investments that politicians can make and brings short-term and long-term dividends that impact on the wider community and the economy. As we progress the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill, I do not doubt that we will debate how best to make that investment and who should be the beneficiaries. We will consider how to use the resources that are available to us to protect and nurture our most vulnerable children and young people, and to ensure that all children and young people have the chance to live fulfilled and healthy lives and become responsible citizens.

Scottish Labour thinks that play makes a contribution to reducing the gaps in health and attainment that too often set in at a very early age and can have long-term consequences for individuals, communities and the organisations that are charged with planning and delivering services to meet need. That is crucial. Therefore, although play might seem incidental to high-level objectives, I welcome the recognition in the action plan of the role of play as part of a wider strategy of early intervention and prevention, to tackle the inequalities that are caused by poverty and deprivation.

For many parents on low incomes, it can be hard to provide for play at home or to pay for access to groups and facilities. Save the Children has highlighted the importance of play being available in the wider community to all children, but especially to those who are disadvantaged. Research for its report “Thrive at Five: Comparative child development at school-entry age” found that children growing up in poverty are more than twice as likely to experience developmental difficulties by the time that they reach school age than their better-off peers.

That is where community facilities and services can have a huge impact. Access to toys, books and support provided in community settings is a really effective way of supporting social, educational and health outcomes for children and their families. Such services are often seen as a soft target when savings have to be made. For that situation to change, the action plan must create a culture in which the value of such services is recognised by policy makers.

The play strategy itself is a positive step forward, but it is being implemented at a time when the funding settlement for local government is one of the tightest that we have seen. As a local councillor in Fife, I am acutely aware of the difficulties in finding the money to meet community aspirations for safe and sustainable indoor and outdoor spaces where children of all ages can have fun, keep fit and meet up with their friends. The impact of welfare reform, coupled with the severe budget pressures already facing local authorities, mean that managers and politicians are having to examine every area of spend, so it is perhaps understandable that the resources available to support play are being squeezed.

Fife Council has invested funds in free swims in the school holidays and quid-a-kid sessions at the local leisure centres. The council regards that as an important investment in health and wellbeing, but the youngsters simply enjoy the chance to have fun. It is clear that when resources are tight we must make the most of every opportunity to be creative in providing sustainable local facilities. I acknowledge the action plan’s recognition of the role of communities in developing and supporting play opportunities.

Over the past few weeks, I have had occasion to be out and about in Fife. Being mindful of the debate, I got to thinking about all the different places where I saw children playing in both informal and formal settings, what they were playing and who they were playing with, and about what constitutes a high-quality play environment and how much it costs to build play parks. I am sure that we have all witnessed the expensive gift sitting neglected while a child plays with the box and the wrapping paper. Building on that logic, how often do we involve children in imagining and planning play spaces? Would they always want swings and roundabouts? What are the alternatives? Could we encourage planners and developers to be more imaginative when building new housing estates? Could we deliver more play value for the money that we spend? I hope that the action plan will help communities and councils.