Campaigners are calling for stronger oversight of play provision in schools in a bid to boost children's physical and mental health.
The Plan for Play, published by the Children’s Alliance, support by Opal Play CIC – the winner of last year’s CYP Now Play Award, lays out key recommendations for government to improve access to play for children.
It calls for reforms to teacher training to have a greater focus on play and for ministers to “ensure statutory provision of play and creative arts therapy services in all primary schools as an early intervention/preventative measure for children’s mental health and wellbeing”.
Further recommendations include calls for the Department for Education to devise a school plan for play. Ofsted should look at how schools enact play plans and the effectiveness of them, adds the report.
