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•l include play in priorities discussions, and support effective local partnership working through
brokering/participating in effective regional networks and partnerships;
•l support pathfinder local authorities, in partnership with Play England, regional coordinators,
the Government Office Network and other government departments, to deliver new and
refurbished play provision;
•l work with children’s services staff to support pilot training for place-shapers, and take
forward work on developing the play workforce;
•l encourage local authorities to give higher priority to outdoor play, reflected in their decisions
on planning, place shaping and resource allocation, and inclusion of play in local strategic
documents; and
•l contribute to DCSF and DCMS policy development and implementation through effective
twinning relationships with policy colleagues.
Play workforce
6.17 A recent survey of employers36 in the play sector found that while a large majority of employees
held at least a level 2 qualification, over half (52 per cent) held no playwork specific qualification,
with only around five per cent having a playwork specific qualification at level 4 or above. These
findings suggest that although the play workforce is quite highly qualified, in many cases these
qualifications are not in play-related subjects.
6.18
6.19
The small number of employees with play qualifications at level 4 or above is also a concern.
Research by SkillsActive shows a decline of 30 per cent in the number of playwork entrants to
higher education institutes between 1999 and 2004 37 .
To help tackle this gap, we are proposing three key actions:
•l to introduce measures to enable 4,000 playworkers to achieve a level 3 play qualification
by 2011;
•l to introduce measures to support the continuous professional development of leaders and
managers in the play workforce, by developing a new playwork management qualification;
and
•l the Children’s Workforce Development Council to commission a research study to consider
how graduates may be deployed most effectively within the play workforce.
6.20 Further details on these proposed actions can be found in Building Brighter Futures: next steps for
the children’s workforce, being published alongside this consultation.
36 Playwork People 3, SkillsActive
37 Assessment of Current Provision, SkillsActive Sector Skills Agreement
Fair Play: A consultation on the play strategy
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