The government has told Play England that there will be no renewal of its national contracts for play beyond March 2011, when the current ones expire.

Play England - and its predecessor the Children's Play Council - has had a range of government contracts since 1999. The largest of these were two different contracts to support the national Play Strategy, launched in 2008. One provided support and challenge services to local authorities receiving capital funding; the other - in partnership with SkillsActive and Playwork Partnerships - delivered Play Shaper, a programme in play principles designed to promote the longer-term aims of the strategy.

These were combined and reduced in size last year, but a new contract was awarded to Play England to provide a smaller programme - 'Engaging Communities in Play' - aimed largely at building capacity for play provision in the voluntary sector. However, the Comprehensive Spending Review has now targeted cuts at non-educational programmes for children and young people in favour of protecting the schools' budget, a move which Play England says thwarts the beginnings of a new national play policy.

Also to be discontinued is the contract to NCB (National Children's Bureau, of which Play England is a part) for the Children's Play Information service.