Fair Play for Children

for the Child's Right to Play

Fair Play for Children Association is a Voluntary non-profit Organisation controlled by its Members, membership is FREE, donations ALWAYS welcome

All links are in yellow 0n this site

including Fair Play for Children News:

Government urged to make UN Convention on Rights of the Child part of UK Law!

Also urges Government to act on Local Education Authorities not abiding by current law on Play/Youth provision

Fair Play exists to campaign for the Child's Right to Play, part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of The Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is the World's most adopted Treaty, the UK has signed it. Article 31 of the Convention states:

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

2. States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.

Fair Play for Children says Britain should incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of The Child into our national law

The Convention in full: Read it HERE

Gaza boy finds solace in kites amidst war devastation

The POWER of Play - Boy finds solace in kites amidst war devastation - WATCH HERE

Fair Play for Children News

The World's Children - their lives, their futures, the World at Play. #

What the Law says your Local Education Authority should provide for Children and Young Peoples Play and Recreation by Law

Revised Fair Play advice including draft proposal for update of current Legislation. NOVEMBER 2024. The proposals would work to ensure better compliance by Local Education Authorities with their Statutory Duties.

Fair Play urges UK Government to make the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child part of UK domestic l aw

Read Letter & Update HERE: We ask senior UK Government Ministers and devolved nation First Ministers to look at this bold aim so our children and young people can have the fullest benefit of the UK's membership of this international Treaty.

Fair Play for Children urges Government to require Councils to implement existing statutory requirements on Play and Youth Provision

Many if not most Local Education Authorities in England are failing to observe their legal duties re Play and Youth provision. Fair Play is telling the Government it needs to act to ensure compliance in the wake of a huge loss of provision - READ LETTER TO GOVERNMENT HERE

Fair Play for Children asks Birmingham City Council searching Freedom of Information questions about its major cuts to youth provision

FPfC focuses on the City’s duties under Education legislation concerning ‘sufficiency’ of provision and consultation of young people. Fair Play will evaluate the answers the Council gives and consider any action. In our view, this may well turn out to be a major concern. Read FoI HERE

Fair Play for Children News is one of the best sources for news about Children, it is published regularly in four sections

Children's Play & Youth Work

including Children's Play, Sport, Arts, Recreation, Cultural, Music, Youth Clubs, Youth Work

Also:

Children in the World & Society

including Children and Young People in Society, Children's Rights, Juvenile Justice, Child Slavery and Labour, Child Soldiers, Climate Change

Child Health Wellbeing & Education

including Children's Health and Wellbeing, Education, Early Years Development, Child Care

Childhood - Research and Science

including Medical Paediatric and Other Research

also

News from Play England News from Play Scotland.

News from Play Wales. News from Playing Out.

Fair Play News Archive, as far back as 2000! News, magazine etc .... work in progress!

Fair Play for Children Online Library LINKS Children's Play & Youth Work Children's Rights Child Protection

Children, Young People and the Environment Inquiry - Levelling-Up Committee

January 2024 This is an important development which encompasses children's and young people's play and recreational/leisure needs

Read Fair Play for Children News coverage HERE

No ball games: life and play through the eyes of children across the UK

This article is more than 3 years old

Celebrating the imagination and resourcefulness of young children across the UK by understanding the outdoor games they invent, inherit and play. The documentary was shot before Covid-19 changed their lives, and shifts from rural Wales to post-industrial Teesside and inner-city London. What challenges will these young people face in the aftermath of brutal funding cuts to youth services? How can their optimistic energy strengthen their resilience in these challenging times?

Guardian documentary 2020

Our children should be .....

PLAYING!

Not enduring this .....

Still less these calamities

Banksy

The Child's Right to Play - The reasons Why

Why does the world's most successful treaty, The UN Convention on the Rights of The Child, include the Right to Play? Whyis somuch emphasis given by educators, doctors and ohers to this?

Play is as old as humanity, back over 3.7 million years ago our distant ancestors walked in Tanzania, there is a child walking beside an adult, no doubt curious and anxious to play ....

Zeal for Play may have propelled human evolution ..... New York Times article

It is because for the Child, its Play may be 'messing about', Fun. seemingly aimless, something every child does without thinking whether it has to or not, but it is also just about the most important thing it does. Play is about Learning, about trial and error, about discovery, about relationships, indeed about exploring the world around it. Not for nothing has Play been called 'the child's natural business' (Albert Einstein).

Imagine a world where suddenly something stops all our adult activity in its tracks. Who would do the 'next thing' and what would that be? Children might just Play... They do in every conceivable situation and circumstance as soon as they are able, they colonise, explore, learn, adapt.

And yet, we adults have ensured that much of the child's play environment has been degraded and compromised - residential streets occupied by the car, children's freedom to play restricted by fears, intolerance, adult agendas and pressures. Their health is compromised as is their healthy development.

The role of Fair Play for Children is to keep that right and obligation before society, and to encourage people to fight for its advance. We seek your support, membership, ACTION. We are a Campaign for The Child's Right to Play - JOIN US!

FAIR PLAY IN ACTION

What Fair Play is doing, its policies and projects, how you can participate. Click on titles to access.

OUR CURRENT CAMPAIGN

What the Law says your Local Education Authority should provide for Children and Young Peoples Recreation by Law

revsised November 2024

Fair Play's information note explains their duties and obligations.

Fair Play -The beginnings

A LETTER TO 'The Times': How Fair Play started

On 31st July 1972, a letter appeared in 'The Times' in the wake of a tragedy - two boys aged nine and seven drowned playing in a tin bath in an East End Canal in London .... for want of somewhere safe to play.

That tragedy led Bishop Trevor Huddleston CR, then Bishop of Stepney, to pen an angry reproach in the press, he had known both boys and their families. It was not right, he insisted, that such a deficit should have led to their deaths.

With the same zeal that marked his defiance of apartheid in his native South Africa (from which he had been exiled for his views). Father Trevor launched this campaign, soon supported by The Duke of Edinburgh, it was, and is, known as Fair Play for Children. Its mission is to achieve that safe, but challenging, play space for every child, as now stated in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

At Fair Play, how do we measure progress towards that aim?   Though much has been achieved, overall can we say that there has been much movement?    Yes, the community and voluntary sector in the UK has led the way, against huge odds mainly thrown in their way by the statutory sector.   Oh, plenty of platitudes, 'nice thoughts', but when we examine the record of government at all levels, it has been a sad tale of non-achievement, even of hindrance.

To be blunt, always the first target for cuts especially by councils, often running counter to their statutory obligations, which goes all too often unchallenged from society.   Fair Play has been and is running a campaign on this aspect, to get the law updated so that councils are held to account by the Government. YOU CAN HELP IN THIS!

MPs and Ministers, local government chiefs, councillors etc all KNOW the importance of Play, or they pay it enough lip service that, were that translated into action and resource, we'd by now have a Play-scape for Heaven on earth.  At this time, so much has been lost, trashed by cuts, our children and young people have been betrayed.

Not very celebratory?    Well, what is stated does not diminish one jot the years of hard work and dedication people and organisations have contributed and continue to do so, Fair Play is dedicated to making sure they have first call.

We will be aiming to secure legislative changes through dialogue with the Government.   You can help by aiming letters at the your MPs to get their support.   Keep in touch via this website. We urge you to redouble the fight for a Fair Deal for Children's Play.   Join Fair Play, DONATE, campaign with us!

Go to

Index

Children need Freedom to Play

Children need Play to Imagine

The Right to be a Child

= The Right to Childhood

= The Right to Play

INDEX

FAIR PLAY FOR CHILDREN

About Fair Play for Children - what we want; Fair Play for Children exists to campaign for the Child's Right to Play; What Children say about their Play

Who we are/ our achievements - and what YOU can do to help

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

The Child's Right to Play - The Reasons Way

Zeal for Play may have propelled human evolution

Fair Play in Action - for a Fair Deal for Our Children

What others say about us

Kids Rights Index - how countries fare

Fair Play in Action

Fair Play in Action Key reports about our current campaign

Fair Play 50 1972-2022 Our first 50 years


Hop Skip and Jump - major Documentary in 2 parts on how play has changed in the UK Part One Part Two
FREETHINKING BBC RADIO 3, 11/7/2023: Childhood and Play, including the new V&A children's experience Fascinating discussion From The Simpsons a BRILLIANT self-parody highlighting the ink between consumerism and child labour LINK

We are grateful for access to this valuable resource

_______________________________________________

HERE It's FREE

CONTACT US:

Email: FPfC1972@gmail.com

32 Longford Road, Bognor Regis PO21 1AG, UK

M 07488-265916

Skype: FairPlayforChildren

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FairPlayForChildren

X (Twitter): @FPFCNews

"The good news is, I just got reconnected with a fantastic organization. .... Hands down, they have the most comprehensive and up to date website I have ever seen... Outstanding. Thank you Fair Play for Children for being part of the good news…(even when you are sharing bad news). I needed you today!"

empoweredbyplay.org

" Fair Play gives excellent support around Play-work issues offering leaflets and policy documents as well as up to date news and information. Ideal for any organisation offering play activities with children. " cffc.co.uk

" A lively site with lots of information, including downloadable guidelines such as Organising a Playscheme and Child Protection in Playwork. This site also includes excellent information on adventure playgrounds. An excellent directory of play organisations. "