Hansard

I am delighted to speak in the debate. I, too, thank Ruth Maguire for bringing it to the chamber and giving us all the opportunity to participate. Like other speakers, I fully welcome the promotion of Scotland’s first inclusive play charter by Play Scotland and I agree that play for all children and young people is vital. Play is fundamental in allowing children to develop and grow and it is important to the wider aim of tackling social inequalities. We must ensure that all children in Scotland have equal access to play, because play has an important role in learning, and that will aid in closing the attainment gap. As members have alluded to, it has been proven that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have less access to play, due to negative barriers such as a lack of sustainable and safe local spaces. That is important in an area such as mine, where for two of the four secondary schools, nearly half of their enrolled children are in the most deprived bracket in the Scottish index of multiple deprivation.

I fully believe that play should be offered at all levels in school and in all aspects of the community. I have enjoyed hearing members’ stories about when they were growing up. Like Ruth Maguire, I grew up in the 1980s, and there was lots of open space to play sports or to take part in physical activity. Where I grew up in Coatdyke, there was a bit that we called the grass, and everybody went down there. I spent my whole summer holidays there, from 9 o’clock in the morning right through till 9 or 10 at night, playing football, hidey or whatever. Now, when I walk down there, there is never anybody playing, and there are lots of “No ball games” signs when, actually, it is a pretty safe and good place to play. That is such a shame.

A lot of spaces, such as at Dunbeth park or what used to be Espieside, now have 4G pitches on them. Those are excellent facilities and I have used them myself, but they are often unaffordable, particularly for young people. Just last week, I received a letter from a 13-year-old who is at Chryston high school. He and his friends were playing football on the 4G pitch at the high school and they had to be removed. It was not the fault of any of the staff that they had to be removed, but the pitch was not actually booked by anybody else. That begs the question of whether we could make better use of such places at times when they are not being used.

I know that, in North Lanarkshire, there is an issue about private finance initiatives in schools, which might come into play in the legal sense. However, the general principle is that we should try to make use of all our spaces. That helps with nurture, development and wellbeing, as well as, as I have already said, closing the attainment gap.

I want to mention an organisation in my constituency, which is parent action for safe play. It has a purpose-built, state-of-the-art playground that I had the pleasure of visiting last month. Over the last 15 years, the organisation has worked in the area to develop and improve play, youth and sport services for local children and young people. Its motto is that it is run by the local community, for the local community.

Parent action for safe play has very impressive facilities that include a soft-play area, outdoor ball-game facilities, a community garden and an adventure playground. The space is enjoyed by the wider community, which is an example of an organisation that is not using the space opening it up so that people can come in. There is no locked gate or anything like that; the outdoor facilities are there for everybody to use.

The organisation also provides services for local neighbourhoods, community groups and schools, such as training older children in the schools to become play champions in order for that to be sustainable. Schools will buy into its services for perhaps a year or two, and then it is to be hoped that they can keep going from there. It is a really good set-up. Last week, I was delighted to receive an email saying that it had received £120,000 of funding from Children in Need in order to provide an even greater range of opportunities across my constituency.

Before finishing, I will say, very briefly, that I am also pleased that, through the seven lochs wetland park project, there will be a new plan inclusive play area site in North Lanarkshire, at Drumpellier country park in my constituency. It will have a crannog play unit, which is the first of its kind in Scotland. I know that a lot of work and research have gone into that. It is very much an enhanced play provision, and the lochs at Drumpellier park—as the area is known more widely—are already a very good tourist attraction, so that might be more encouragement for people to come.

I thank Ruth Maguire again. I will not be able to make tonight’s reception. I do not want to be outdone by either Daniel Johnson or Jeremy Balfour; I too need to go home and play with my child.