Play: vision statement and action plan 2025 to 2030

Glossary of definitions

Play – In line with the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC) and General Comment 17, we define play as an activity which is chosen and directed by the child and undertaken for enjoyment and its own sake rather than as a means to an end. Play is a fundamental part of the pleasure of childhood, as well as essential for children’s physical, social, cognitive, emotional and spiritual development.

Children and young people – in line with the definition of the child in UNCRC when we refer to a child, we mean a person under the age of 18.

Parents – anyone who carries a care giving responsibility or role for a child in a formal or informal capacity. This might be biological parents, other related family members such as an aunt, uncle or grandparent, adopted parents, foster parents, etc.

Place – the physical environment around us, the streets we live on, the routes and paths we take, the natural or built spaces where we spend our time. The people within that environment (the social environment) and the interaction of the two, the physical place and people. Place can be perceived at different scales: from a playground to a street, a locality or a neighbourhood, a village, a town or a city.

Practitioners – an individual or a group of people working directly with children or with parents and families in relation to their children. This definition includes workforce required to have a professional qualification to carry out their roles as well as those that do not, those performing their roles in a paid for or unpaid capacity. E.g. teachers, early learning and childcare (ELC) staff, education support assistants, school age childcare providers, social workers, playworkers, youth workers, midwives, health visitors, child minders and more.

Barriers and support – Barriers to play will be experienced by all children in different ways and at different times. For some children, perhaps because of their age or because of complex additional support needs, more adult assistance may be necessary to support their right to play in a nurturing and responsive way.

Accessible – An accessible play space is a space which is barrier-free, allows users access to move around the space and offers participation opportunities for a range of differing abilities. Not every child will be able to actively use everything within an accessible play space^[4]. Accessibility relates not just to the space itself, but also in how people might reasonably reach the space from their home.

Inclusive – An inclusive play space provides a barrier-free environment, with supporting infrastructure, which meets the wide and varying play needs of every child. All children will enjoy high levels of participation opportunities, equally rich in play value^[5].