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National league table for parks and playgrounds
A league table rating the quality of parks and playgrounds in England is to be published as part of a new strategy aimed at encouraging children to play outside more.
To be introduced as part of the government’s £235m investment in play, the scheme will see a team of play rangers being recruited in an attempt to make playgrounds more adventurous and challenging for children.
The government is hoping that the Children’s Plan initiative will also help create 3,500 new play areas across the UK.
Adrian Voce, director of Play England, said: “The proposed strategy is a massive step towards England again becoming a more child-friendly country.
“For it and the funding to have the impact they need, local authorities must now make play the priority that it has always been for children.”
Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, said he wanted to introduce an element of controlled risk into outdoor play and to challenge local authorities that were closing adventure playgrounds for fear that parents would sue them in the event of an accident.
His comments, at the publication last week of a consultation document, Fair Play, follows research showing a decline in opportunities for children to play outside.
One in four children aged 8 to 10 has never played outside without an adult present.
One in three parents will not allow children aged 8 to 15 to play outside their house or garden and the average age at which children are allowed outside unsupervised has risen from about 7 in the 1960s and 1970s to just over 8 today.
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