Play: vision statement and action plan 2025 to 2030 - children's version

Play Vision Statement and Action Plan 2025-2030: The Children’s Version

Why did we make the Play Vision Statement and Action Plan?

Play is a vitally important part of childhood. It can be exciting, it can be exhausting. It can be joyful, it can be challenging. It can help us adapt to new places or situations, express ourselves to other people and make friends.

It is important to us to have a plan to make play better because:

• Play is important and all children and young people have a right to play.
• Play is good for health and development.
• Play helps us feel safe, confident, and independent.
• Play helps us express our thoughts and feelings.
• Play helps us learn, play makes learning fun, and we learn when we play.
• Play helps us to make friends.
• No-one is too young or too old to play. Play is good for everyone.

Vision: What we want the future to look like

All children and young people should be able to play, no matter where they live or what they look like. Play should be inclusive, so all children and young people can play safely in their communities.

We want Scotland to be a place where all children and young people can say:

"I can play in my neighbourhood, make friends, and enjoy the world around me. There are safe and welcoming places for me to play outside, and my community is happy that I am playing outside."

"I can play at home with my family, and it helps us become closer. They know how important it is to play with me."

"I play in lots of different ways: by myself and with others, loud and quiet, active and calm, playing pretend, using my imagination, hanging out, and having fun."

"I can play at nursery or school. It helps me learn new things. Teachers let us play as part of our learning to work out new ideas."

Actions: Our plan to make it happen

Through our actions the Scottish Government wants to support three important parts of life that help all children in Scotland access play:

• Parents and all those who look after children at home.
• Places where children like to play and hang out.
• Practitioners, which are all the people who work with children as a part of their job like health visitors and teachers at nursery or school.

We will give parents and carers information about how important play is for children from birth, ways their children and young people can play as they grow, information on local play spaces, and safe ways to play online so they have the knowledge and confidence to improve their children’s play opportunities.

We will work with adults who design and build public spaces to make sure that all play spaces are safe, welcoming, inclusive, and accessible to all children and young people across Scotland, and that children and their families have a say in what play spaces their local communities need.

We will support everyone who works with children and young people to promote the importance of play for children and young people as they grow and learn and how they can help children and young people access play.

So, we played

They told us: no ball games, no hoodies, you’re too old, we’re too busy, or be home before dark.

So, we imagined the streets let loose; business ties became kite strings; shopping baskets the best sleds; grannies skipped ropes as we chalked a gallery onto the concrete.

Roads bloomed into parks, dens, pitches.

We tightrope walked between cracks in the pavements, turned paper into a playground, trees into an adventure.

We found what we hid under our beds; what we tucked into the grass; swapped secrets.

We were pirates and wild dogs, astronauts and actors.

Our words were the scream of a scored goal, a whispered story shared, a place remembered together.

Sometimes, we got lost and talked to no one but ourselves and own worlds; didn’t need footballs or toys, just our hands and skipped stones; we struck an idea like a match.

We learned the way the world spins, the feel of rushed air, the sound of a joke. No one was too grown, too small, locked out or told off.

We were free to do whatever we wanted; so, we played.

This poem was written by Catherine Wilson Gary and was inspired by and created from words collected as part of workshops with children and young people.