Hansard

Like all my colleagues in the chamber, I fully support the development of a national play strategy. Play and recreation are essential to the health and wellbeing of children. They promote the development of creativity, imagination and self-confidence as well as physical, social, cognitive and emotional strengths and skills. Through their involvement in play and recreation, children learn by doing; they explore and experience the world around them and experiment with new ideas, roles and experiences. In doing so, they learn to understand and construct their social position in the world.

Scottish Labour pledged to develop a national play strategy in our 2011 manifesto. l hope that the Scottish Government delivers on the broad range of commitments and outcomes that are included in the action plan.

Play and recreation are very different now compared with what they were when I was growing up. Children in all regions of the world are spending increasing periods of time engaged in play and recreation on various digital platforms and media, and information and communication technologies are emerging as a central part of a child’s daily life. Today, children move seamlessly between offline and online environments. The use of modern technologies such as tablets and personal computers to learn and play provides children with benefits around learning cognitive skills, albeit spending hours on games consoles and in front of the TV is often children’s primary use of technology. We need a balance.

A recent survey of 13,000 children for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde found that one in four children spends as much as 12 hours a day in front of the television or on a computer. Moreover, a 2011 report by International Play Association Scotland suggested that only 35 per cent of children felt happy and safe when playing in their streets. It is easy to see from that why children are spending more time using digital media.

I welcome the commitment in the action plan for children and young people to be able to find clean, safe and welcoming spaces in which to play and gather near their home. There is a duty on parents and adults in our society to provide safe platforms on which our children can grow, develop and enjoy themselves. The action plan can, I hope, help us provide those safe platforms for our children, but a number of issues need to be addressed.

The right to play is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that children have the right to relax and play, and to join in a wide range of cultural, artistic and other recreational activities. In the consultation on the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill, the Scottish Government committed to give the UNCRC a statutory basis in Scots law by placing a legal duty on ministers to give due regard to the UNCRC in all its decisions. However, the wording of the bill requires ministers only to

“keep under consideration”

matters relating to the UNCRC and to act

“if they consider it appropriate to do so”.

The wording is ambiguous and I am disappointed that the Scottish Government will not make a stronger commitment to the legislative incorporation of the UNCRC in the bill.

Every child should be able to enjoy those rights, regardless of where he or she lives, his or her cultural background or his or her parental status. According to Children 1st, one in five Scottish children is officially recognised as living in poverty. Save the Children’s research demonstrates that children who grow up in poverty are more than twice as likely as their better-off peers to experience developmental difficulties by the time that they reach school age. There is a substantial evidence base to suggest that access to high-quality play experiences from a very young age can support the healthy development of some of our most vulnerable children and nurture literacy and key skills that can unlock their potential and help to address the gap in educational attainment.

I agree with Save the Children’s view that the Scottish Government should prioritise in the play strategy action plan support for families experiencing poverty and endeavour to join up commitments in the national parenting strategy, to prioritise support for parents to provide a good home-learning environment.

Many of the actions in the action plan apply to local authorities that have already had to absorb significant cuts to their budgets and local authorities may struggle to increase leisure services beyond current levels. Last year, the Scottish Government committed to providing £3 million for play through the early years and early intervention change fund, which supported projects to help children play safely in their local area. In light of budget pressures on local authorities, I would like assurances that the measures contained in the action plan will be backed by the financial resources to turn those ambitions into reality.

The play strategy action plan can be used as a tool to help vulnerable children in certain sections of society. Families Outside estimates that 28,000 children in Scotland have a parent in prison. The incarceration of a parent can have an adverse effect on a child’s development and increase the likelihood of them growing up to offend later in life. The play strategy action plan, coupled with the early years and early intervention change fund, could be used as a tool to support that vulnerable group of children by providing quality play and recreation time with their incarcerated parent.