Senior councillors approve new play sufficiency priorities and appoint new Leeds Play Champion

Leeds is leading the way by being the first city in England to commit to delivering an action plan, designed to optimise play opportunities for children and young people across the entire city.

Understanding the importance of play to wellbeing, and how children and young people can be negatively affected by a ‘poverty of experience’, the council has committed to obtain a better understanding children’s experience of play.

The Leeds play sufficiency project is an ongoing process of research and action to assess, improve and protect children’s opportunities for play.  Extensive research has been conducted by the council, with over 50 hours spent listening to children, parent/carer and front-line worker focus groups, and almost 900 survey responses to help explore what is working for who, where and why at a neighbourhood and organisational level.

This has led to the development of nine strategic play priorities for Leeds to help improve opportunities to play. Priorities include the creation of streets that are safe, welcoming and encourage children’s play, as well as improving access to nature-based play environments.

A new cross council approach has also been pioneered, aiming to embed play sufficiency principles in the heart of decision making across the council, championing the rights of children and young people to access play. This has been supported by the executive board appointing Councillor Fiona Venner as the new Leeds Play Champion. In this role Councillor Venner will work to pull together council services, public and third sector organisations to increase opportunities for play in Leeds.

Councillor Fiona Venner, Leeds City Council’s executive member for children's social care and health partnerships, said: “This is fantastic news for children and young people across Leeds, prioritising play is an important step forward to ensuring that everyone in Leeds gets the best start in life.

“I am really looking forward to getting involved in this journey as the city’s new play champion and working with a wide range of partners to make the Leeds play sufficiency action plan a reality.”

Councillor Salma Arif, Leeds City Council’s executive member for adult social care, public health, and active lifestyles, said: “Play is at the heart of all that children want and need in life, so it is vitally important that we prioritise children’s access to play across Leeds. Play sufficiency is a powerful organising principle and it will allow us to find common ground between our city’s policies, strategies and partners.

“I am really looking forward to helping deliver a play sufficiency action plan helping realise our child friendly city ambitions. It also supports our Marmot City approach where we are targeting the reduction of health inequalities, particularly for children.”