Play: vision statement and action plan 2025 to 2030

Annex A

Publications, Programmes and Policies Delivered Since Publication of the 2013 Play Strategy

In 2013, we published Scotland’s first ever National Play Strategy. This was a landmark publication as it set out for the first time the Scottish Government’s recognition of the importance of play and our commitment to improving children’s access to play.

In recognition of the important work delivered by the third sector in promoting and supporting play opportunities for children, the Scottish Government Children, Young People, Families Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) Third Sector Fund has provided core funding to a wide range of play organisations since 2016 to implement the Play Strategy including Play Scotland (£1.6 million since 2016), the Yard (£634,500 since 2016) and Learning Through Landscapes (£400,000 since 2016).

The 2013 strategy detailed the benefits of play and identified the four domains in which we recognise play – play at home; play in the community; play in Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) and schools; and positive support for play. The strategy became a springboard for the following number of critical developments supporting play opportunities across Scotland.

Play at Home

2017 Parent Club^[42] was launched as the Scottish Government’s online support for all parents and carers. The website, social channels and email programme offer advice and tips for raising children at each age and stage, including information on the importance of play for early child development and ideas for free play opportunities for children of all ages at home and in the community.

2020 Play Scotland launched their Home Play Pack, Indoor Play Ideas and Active Play Ideas packs to support children and families during Covid-19 with play opportunities. More than 26,000 home packs were distributed.

Play in the Community

2014 Introduction of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act, which set out the Children’s Services Planning duties. Children’s Services Planning is Scotland’s legislative approach to collaborative local strategic planning and delivery of services and support, delivered in a way which improves wellbeing outcomes for children, young people and families living in each area.

2014 In recognition of the specific needs of children receiving medical care in NHS settings, NHS Scotland published Health Building Note 23, Best Practice Guide to Hospital Accommodation for Children and Young People (HBN23)^[43] . The Guides offers direction on creating welcoming and play inclusive spaces for children.

2015 The Play Map and Play Map Toolkit, published by Play Scotland, support Community Planning Partnerships(CPPs) in integrating play into their strategic plans. This resource helps CPPs achieve objectives that support the wellbeing of children, young people, and their families across communities. The toolkit also aids practitioners working with children in the Early Level to effectively use play pedagogy for learning and development.

2016 Published the Play Out of Hours toolkit^[44] to help headteachers, parent councils and local organisations to work together to consider making school grounds available to local children out of teaching hours, allowing communities lacking dedicated play spaces locally to take advantage of the play spaces that the children are already familiar with through their learning.

2018 In recognition of the specific needs of children receiving medical care in NHS settings, NHS Scotland published Mental Health - Facilities for children and adolescents (HBN 03-02)^[45].

2018 The Free to Play Guide^[46] was produced by Inspiring Scotland, Play Scotland and the Nancy Ovens Trust in support of the Scottish Government’s Play Strategy, to assist groups in developing or improving public play spaces. The guide helps plan from initial ideas to commissioning design and build of play spaces, with an emphasis on access and inclusion so that children of different ages, abilities and play preferences are able to play together.
2018 Inspiring Scotland and the Scottish Government brought together a broad group of academics and organisations from education, childcare, healthcare, environment and government to create Scotland’s Outdoor Play and Learning Coalition.

2019 The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 introduced an unprecedented new duty on planning authorities to consult children and young people when they prepare local development plans.

2020 Scotland’s Outdoor Play and Learning Coalition published a position statement^[47] and since then over 100 signatories have committed to working together to embed playing and learning outdoors as an everyday activity and celebrate it as a fundamental part of growing up in Scotland.

2021 The Place Standard tools for children and young people were developed by Play Scotland and A Place in Childhood, in consultation with children and young people in Scotland. These tools were used to assess places and provide a framework for discussions about them. The Play Toolkit helped local authorities ensure sufficient play opportunities and evaluate local attitudes towards children.

2022 Since 2022 provided £850,517 funding to support the Active Play Development Programme which is an evidence-based programme that effectively helps children be more physically active and supports children’s emotional, social, and cognitive development. This programme focuses on working in areas of higher deprivation or in isolated communities, and trains up local organisations and people to deliver Active Play.

2023 The Town and Country Planning (Play Sufficiency Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2023^[48], provide for the form and content of Play Sufficiency Assessments (PSAs) to assess the sufficiency of play opportunities in their areas to help inform local development plan-making.

2023 Included a key policy within our suite of national planning policies, set out in National Planning Framework 4^[49] (NPF4), which encourage, promote and facilitate spaces and opportunities for outdoor play, recreation and sport in our natural and built environment, supporting health and wellbeing of our communities, including the healthy development of our children and the wellbeing of families.

2024 Physical Activity for Health Framework^[50] published, based around 8 Strategic Delivery Outcomes which, if achieved, will lead to transformational change. It also provides a clear link to wider policy action to address Population Health challenges.

Play in Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) and schools

2017 Publication of ‘The Expansion of Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland: Quality Action Plan’ (2017)^[51].

2019 Education Scotland published the Early Level Play Pedagogy toolkit. The multi-media toolkit supports practitioners working with children in the Early Level to appropriately use play pedagogy to support learning and development.
2019 – 2021 Over the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government funded the Virtual Nature School to support more than 2,500 practitioners and 40,000 children and families to make greater use of the outdoors for learning and wellbeing and better understand the benefits of outdoor play for children’s development. Additionally, Scottish Government grant funded Inspiring Scotland £103,000 to create and share outdoor play guidance and materials for the ELC sector to support play during COVID-19.

2020 Scottish Government published the ‘Out to Play’ guidance^[52] and advice for ELC settings and practitioners on how to access outdoor spaces to create safe, nurturing and inspiring outdoor learning experiences.

2020 To support the ELC expansion, Education Scotland and the Scottish Government published the refreshed national practice guidance for early years education in Scotland ‘Realising the Ambition: Being Me’ (RtA)^[53].

2021 Increase in funded early learning and childcare to 1140 hours^[54] for 3, 4 and eligible 2 year-olds led to additional opportunities for children to engage in developmentally appropriate play and learning.

2021 Inspiring Scotland administered a £1 million Outdoor Clothing Fund as part of the wider £100 million Winter Support Package. This fund enabled providers of funded early learning and childcare to purchase outdoor winter clothing for the children in their settings who were most in need to reduce inequalities and improve access to outdoor experiences in ELC.

2021 Better Breaktimes, Better Transitions: supporting transitions through play. A project aimed at understanding how play can support positive transitions by enhancing breaktime experiences for primary pupils moving to secondary education. It was commissioned by Play Scotland and delivered in partnership with Learning through Landscapes and Falkirk Council.

2022 NatureScot research reports that children are now spending, on average, 39% of their time in ELC outdoors. This represents an increase of 3% compared to the findings in the 2014 report.

2023 Scottish Government published guidance^[55] on caring for outdoor spaces to support early learning and childcare settings to make the most of their outdoor spaces and care for the environment through Learning for Sustainability^[56].

2024 Publication of The Early Learning and Childcare Expansion to 1140 hours: Interim Evaluation Report. Demonstrates that the programme is delivering high-quality care and learning experiences for children, as well as meeting the needs of the majority of families.

2024 The Care Inspectorate published ‘Space to Grow and Thrive’, to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date framework for planning, designing and delivering high-quality ELC and School Age Childcare (SACC) settings that support children’s wellbeing, learning and development^[57].

General Support for play

2013 Provision of funding via the Outdoor Community Play Fund for charities to provide community-based outdoor play opportunities for children (up to the age of 17) and families in disadvantaged areas and offer children with Additional Support Needs access to local, outdoor play provision.

2017 Play Scotland launched its Play Charter, a collective commitment to ensuring play opportunities for all babies, children, and young people in Scotland. The Charter was designed for parents, play providers, play champions, and anyone with an interest or responsibility in promoting play across the country.

2021 Marketing campaign to encourage children and families to play outdoors over the winter months. The campaign featured videos and activity ideas to support parents with all-weather play and promoted outdoor experiences, not only as a restriction compliant way for children to be with their friends, but as a fun activity for the whole family.

2023 The State of Play in Scotland report, authored by Dr Lily Fitzgibbon and Professor Helen Dodd for Play Scotland, consolidates findings from four previous studies on children’s play, incorporating input from children and young people. The report highlights the unequal access to public play spaces.