Hansard

On 7 August, part of the city centre of Aberdeen was essentially turned into a playground, with 250 to 300 children participating in the Aberdeen national play day, which included face painting, an obstacle course and a bouncy castle. It was organised by the Aberdeen play forum, whose role is to increase play opportunities in Aberdeen, working with public and private organisations in the city and with charities and voluntary and community organisations to raise awareness of the importance of play. That kind of approach ties in neatly with the strategy that the minister has launched, which I welcome greatly.

I think back to my time as a councillor when work was undertaken in my ward to reinvigorate some of the play areas in the community—one at Sluie park in Dyce and two in the Princess Drive area of Dyce—which had fallen into disrepair and were not well used. In one case it was about bringing partners and funding together to put new equipment in place and to change the layout of the park and make it much more vibrant and well used. In the other case, it was about bringing in some street art on the ground, which reinvigorated the area and has made it very well used by the young children round about.

There are other areas in my constituency where there is a lack of modern play facilities. In some cases, such as in Forrit Brae and Bucksburn, play facilities have been removed with no prospect of their being replaced.

I take on board the point that members have made about the funding issues, which I recognise, because I encountered them when I was working as a councillor to reinvigorate some of the play areas. We need to think outside the box, if you will, about how we approach this. We cannot simply say, “There’s not enough funding in local authority budgets, so we can’t make progress.” We need to find creative ways to encourage new play facilities and play areas to be developed. One of those might be to look to the private sector and to consider whether, in the same way that some local authorities set sponsorship for roundabouts, sponsorship of play parks could fund play facilities.

We also need to consider the prohibitive cost of play equipment. We need to look at whether the companies that are supplying play equipment are offering true value for money and whether they are asking the price that ought to be paid for such equipment.

Ken Macintosh’s anecdote about the Wendy house reminded me that children sometimes do not need expensive play equipment—imagination is all that is required. In my intervention on “No ball games” signs, I was trying to make the point that we sometimes do our level best to prevent play from happening in certain areas. However, when I was growing up “No ball games” signs were very good for goalposts. We need to think about how we are encouraging children to use open spaces.

I will focus the remainder of my speech on the issue of children with disabilities and additional support needs. The Conservative amendment is a welcome addition that will enhance and strengthen the motion.

Here are some testimonials from families who have difficulty in accessing leisure and play facilities:

“There isn’t anything suitable for our young daughter with autism”;

“No afterschool clubs or groups to cater for his needs”;

“There is nowhere for him due to age and height restrictions”;

“Physical access. 1:1 support needed—can’t do that with another child to support, physically too difficult”;

and

“It is very stressful for our son and us as he doesn’t do well in crowded places”.

I recognise those as issues that I have encountered when looking at the play opportunities for my own son.

The facilities that people would like to see are:

“Sensory rooms and more soft play for ASN”;

“Relaxation, play and learn, movement, ball, storytelling”;

and

“To have somewhere to access as a family or with your child with ASN; to have somewhere we could go as a family”.

In the north-east—not necessarily in my constituency—there are opportunities for families with additional support needs. Kool Kidz, in Insch, is a soft play centre that tries to hold special requirement sessions on a monthly basis—the next one is on 20 November. I have been to one of those sessions and they are extremely welcome. Hoodles, in Oldmeldrum, is one of the top soft play areas according to a Netmums survey. It holds a special requirement session on the last Thursday of every month, which runs from 5.30 to 8 pm. Today, for Hallowe’en, there are prizes for the best boy and girl in fancy dress.

There are good examples of organisations and private enterprises that are reaching out to make their areas more accessible to children with additional support needs. It can be difficult for families with children with additional support needs to access such facilities when they are open to the main stream, as they can be very busy and crowded. If a child has particular sensory issues or a lack of ability to understand the concept of waiting and taking turns, or if a child wants to use only the middle one of three slides, it can be difficult to explain that to other children and parents.

There is a facility in the north-east—in Westhill, in Dennis Robertson’s constituency—called SensationALL, which is designed specifically to cater for children with additional support needs. It has sensory provision, toys and other opportunities for sensory play, and at present it is fundraising to increase the availability of its play facilities.

I will end by quoting Dr Seuss because, frankly, any opportunity to do so should be taken:

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!

There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.

And the magical things you can do with that ball

will make you the winning-est winner of all.

By having a national play strategy, we can make Scotland’s children the winning-est winners of all.

15:23