playing out end of year report march 2014€¦ · march 2014 playing out page 2 end of year report...

Playing Out

End of year report March 2014

Prepared by

148 North Street, Bristol, BS3 1HA 0117 9537167 [email protected]

www.playingout.net

March 2014 Playing Out End of year report

Background The Playing Out organisation began in 2009 as a small, local, neighbour-led project, enabling children to play out on one street in Bristol through the simple model of short, stewarded road closures. In 2010 we ran a pilot on 6 Bristol streets (see attached report) and set up the website www.playingout.net as a free resource for residents. In 2011 we constituted as a Community Interest Company whose key aim is to enable children to play out safely on the streets where they live, with project funding to provide workshops and one-to-one support for residents. Interest and demand for our support from communities all over Bristol has now vastly outstripped our capacity to respond. We piloted the project in the Greater Bedminster Neighbourhood partnership area of Bristol in 2010 and trialled Bristol’s ‘Temporary Play Street Order’ (TPSO) during 2011-12, from September 2012. Our work in Bristol has received funding from the Local Sustainable Transport fund and Bristol PCT, enabling us to support the TPSO as permanent Bristol City Council policy over two years. We hope this will enable the project to take root in all Neighbourhood Partnership areas, with the aim of creating 100 established Play Streets across the city by the end of March 2015. This project aims to benefit thousands of children and wider communities across the city and truly establish Bristol as a beacon city for street play. It also enables us to build on existing relationships with Bristol University and UWE to formally evaluate the model as a means to increase road-safety and sustainable transport choices. In parallel to this work, Playing Out is part of the national street play project supporting communities and local authorities across the England to reactivate a culture of children playing out in the streets near where they live and embed this in local policy.


Working with partners, Play England, London Play and Bristol University and with funding from the Department of Health, the project aims to:

• Support parents and communities to kick start resident-led street play through providing guidance and support online.

• Support residents and communities in up to nine target areas with poor health outcomes to activate street play in their neighbourhoods.

• Work with locally based voluntary organisations and local authorities to advise them on the policies and processes that can support resident-led street play.

• Campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of playing out, increase acceptance of children playing near where they live and stimulate demand for street play.

Playing Out’s role in this partnership during this year was to support residents across England by providing resources and materials, guiding people on how to build support in their neighbourhood and creating ways for people to share their ideas and experiences. The Playing Out team Playing Out is a Community Interest Company with a board of four directors. Alice Ferguson Amy Rose Ingrid Skeels Naomi Fuller The wider team during the year consisted of

– Managing Director (working 0.8 full time equivalent) – Artist in Residence (freelance)

– Strategy and development (freelance) – Media and Communications (working 0.6 full time equivalent) – Bristol Co-ordinator (working 0.6 full time equivalent) – Operations Manager (working 0.8 full time equivalent from Sept 2013)

– Easton and Ashley Co-ordinator (freelance to January 2014) – Hackney Co-ordinator (freelance to Sept 2013)

All of the team worked on a self-employed freelance basis until 31 August 2013. From 1 September , and became members of staff. joined as the fourth staff member on 30 Sept. The Playing Out shop has a shop at 148 North St, Bristol BS3 1HA which provides the opportunity for people to drop in and discuss ideas informally.


Playing Out activity in Bristol During 2013-14 we have recorded an additional 91 enquiries from people in Bristol who are interested in Playing Out. A total of 64 streets have had a playing out session or are about to start to do so. During the year we have worked both to support residents who are interested in getting playing out sessions going on their streets and to raise awareness more widely to encourage people to think about kids playing out more. Our awareness-raising work has included participating in at least a dozen neighbourhood partnership meetings or forums, 26 different community events (such as Redfest, Headly Park picnic and Easton Arts Trail) and approximately twelve citywide events such as Make Sunday Special and the Harbour Festival. Support to residents includes attending 14 residents meetings, and 30 first (or one off) playing out session as well as with organisations such as schools or residents groups who are interested in Playing Out.


Activity so far is located in 15 wards (Ashley, Bedminster, Bishopston, Brislington West, Clifton, Cotham, Easton, Eastville, Filwood, Henleaze, Horfield, Knowle, Redland, Southville, St George West, Westbury-on-Trym and Windmill Hill)

This is spread across 10 of the 14 Bristol Neighbourhood Partnership areas:

• Ashley, Easton and Lawrence Hill • Bishopston, Cotham and Redland • Cabot, Clifton and Clifton East • Filwood, Knowle and Windmill Hill • Greater Bedminster Community Partnership • Greater Brislington Neighbourhood Partnership • Greater Fishponds Area - Eastville, Hillfields and Frome Vale • Henleaze, Stoke Bishop and Westbury on Trym • Horfield and Lockleaze • St George East and West

The four neighbourhood partnership areas where playing out sessions are yet to start are: • Avonmouth and Kingsweston • Henbury and Southmead

02468101214

Ashley

Bedm

inster

Bishopston

BrislingtonWest

Clifton

Cotham

Easton

Eastville

Filwood

Henleaze

HorBield

Knowle

Redland

Southville

StGeorgeWest

Westbury-‐on-‐Trym

Windm

illHill

Streets that have had playing outsessions by ward


• Hengrove and Stockwood • Dundry View These areas all have some geographical similarity in that they are located on the outskirts of the city – this can be seen in the map which outlines levels of activity across the city. We have plans to “seed” playing out and further engage with residents here during the next year.

A total of 64 streets have had playing out sessions or are about to start to do so. 46 streets have successfully applied for a Temporary Play Street Order. 5 streets are doing informal pavement or cul-de-sac play as a result of Playing Out. 9 Streets have done one-off playing out sessions 4 streets have applied for Temporary Play Street Orders and their applications are pending.


Of the 46 streets that have had more than one session, we believe that 33 are playing out regularly at the time of writing. Of the 13 that don’t currently have regular playing out sessions, we believe four or five are likely to re-apply for playing out sessions during the summer months only. During the year Bristol City Council gave permission for 745 playing out sessions, with an average of 30 children at each two-hour session, this equates to 44,700 potential hours of physical activity.

Bristol streets that have had playing out sessions

• Acramans Road, Southville • Bartletts Road, Bedminster • Battersea Road, Easton • Belton Road, Easton • Birch Road, Southville • Bloy St, Easton • Bourneville Rd., Easton • Breach Road, Bedminster • Brynland Avenue, Bishopston • Burghley Road, Ashley • Cairns Road, Henleaze • Carlyle Rd, , Easton • Chelsea Park, Easton • Church Avenue, Easton • Churchways Crescent, Horfield • Clift road, Southville • Colston Road, Easton • Cornwall Road, Bishopston

• Crowther St & Parker St, Bedminster

• Dartmoor Street, Southville • Devonshire Road, Henleaze • Drake Rd, Southville • Dugar Walk, Redland • Eldon Terrace, Windmill Hill • Elmgrove Road, Eastville • Exeter road, Southville • Falmouth Road, Bishopston • Foxcote road, Bedminster • Glyn Vale, Filwood • Greville Road, Southville • Grove/ Lodore Road, Eastville • Halsbury Road, Redland • Hamilton Road, Southville • Haverstock Road, Windmill Hill • Hawthorne St, Windmill Hill • Howard Avenue, St George West


• Kennington Avenue, Bishopston • Langham Road, Knowle • Leighton Road, Southville • Lena Avenue, Easton • Lime Road, Southville • Lynmouth Road, Ashley • Malmesbury Close, Redland • Milford Street, Southville • Monk Road, Bishopston • Monmouth Road, Bishopston • Morley Road, Southville • Nottingham Road, Bishopston • Queens Drive, Bishopston • Sandgate Road, Brislington West • Sefton Park Road, Ashley

• Seymour Avenue, Bishopston • Shadwell Road, Redland • Shipley Rd, Westbury-on-Trym • Springfield Avenue, Bishopston • St Albans, Henleaze • St Ronans Avenue, Cotham • St Vincents, Clifton • Stanley Park , Easton • Stonebridge Park, , Eastville • Upper Belmont Rd (Longfield),

Bishopston • Upper Cheltenham Place, Ashley • West View Road, Bedminster • Willoughby Road, Bishopston

Contents of a Playing Out Kitbox Headcounts from playing out sessions in 32 streets show that 935 children were present. This gives an average of 29.2 children at each session. Given that a headcount is likely to be conservative (it is a snapshot rather than a record of all children who participated), we believe that it is reasonable to assume that an average of 30 children are engaged on each street. On this basis we estimate that at least 1650 children have directly benefitted. When we apply the same method of calculating participation by adults, we have found that an average of 15 adults are engaged on each street. This give an estimate of at least 825 adults engaged across the city.


National work to support street play During the year Playing Out has directly supported, advised or provided training for the following local authorities:

• Bristol City Council • Hackney Council • Ealing Council • Wrexham Council • Birmingham City Council • Brighton & Hove Council • Cambridge City Council • Gloucestershire County Council • Maidstone Borough Council • NE Lincolnshire Council • Doncaster Council • Bath and North East Somerset Council • Adur and Worthing Councils

We shared our experience and promoted the idea of street play through speaking and presenting at a wide variety of events and talks including:

• Save Childhood Movement Flourish Summit, London • Living Streets Parliamentary Reception, London • Leicester University Play & Austerity seminar, Leicester • Project Wildthing launch, Bristol • Playable City lecture, Bristol • Four Nations Play Symposium, Glasgow • 20 is plenty conference, London • TEDx Bedford

By promoting street play at a policy level, we hope to make it easier to achieve on the ground. As part of this work we contributed to the Chief Medical Officer’s 2012 report “Our Children Deserve Better: Prevention Pays” which includes a case study on playing out. We also attended discussions with Department of Health and Department for Transport about road closure policy and were in touch with the Scottish Children’s Minister about road closure policy in Scotland. Media Coverage One of the key ways in which we have been able to spread knowledge of playing out sessions and the issues around street play is via coverage in a variety of different media. During the year we recorded the following media coverage: National Media 01/04/2013 Sunday Times (Driving) article


16/04/2013 Daily Mail Article re. Colchester scheme 01/06/2013 BBC1 The One Show Feature on Playing Out 01/06/2013 Take a Break Magazine feature onPlaying Out 04/07/2013 The Times Article and photo 09/07/2013 The Times Playing Out letter 14/08/2013 Sky News feature on DH funding 14/08/2013 Radio 4 Today feature on DH funding 25/09/2013 The Times Playing Out mentioned in article 30/09/2013 Radio 4 You and Yours - Playing Out interview 22/02/2014 The Telegraph - Article mentioning Playing Out 31/03/2014 Radio 4 ‘PM’ programme Feature on Playing Out 23/02/2014 LBC Radio Feature on Playing Out

Local Media– Bristol 17/07/2013 BBC Radio Bristol Playing Out interview 07/08/2013 BBC Radio Bristol Playing Out interview 26/09/2013 Bristol Evening Post article 01/11/2013 Bedminster Matters Feature

Local Media – Hackney 25/06/2013 Hackney Today article 31/07/2013 Hackney Gazette Local Media- other 01/04/2013 BBC Radio Essex Interview with Playing Out 10/04/2013 Manchester Evening News general piece 08/05/2013 BBC South Today TV feature 08/05/2013 BBC Radio Sussex feature 03/07/2013 The Argus Brighton article 13/07/2013 The Star Sheffield article 21/07/2013 Sheffield Telegraph 19/08/2013 BBC Radio Foyle Playing Out interview 06/09/2013 Leicester Mercury article 06/09/2013 BBC Radio Leicester 18/10/2013 West Sussex Gazette 24/10/2013 Worthing Herald 24/10/2013 Towns Alive blog piece 29/10/2013 Grimsby Telegraph article 23/11/2013 Edinburgh Evening News article 26/11/2013 BBC Radio Sheffield feature 19/12/2013 Haringey Independent feature 22/12/2013 Tottenham & Wood Green Journal 28/12/2013 Shoreham Herald 27/12/2013 Tottenham & Wood Green Journal


18/02/2014 South Wales Argus 07/02/2014 Islington Tribune 18/02/2014 Ham and High article 18/03/2014 Northampton Herald and Post 12/03/2014 Get Reading 04/03/2014 Shoreham Herald


Playing Out in Hackney As well as our local work in Bristol, during 2013/14 we were able to support play streets in Hackney via a local co-ordinator. the Hackney Playing Out co-ordinator is worked closely with Hackney Play Association and Playing Out to promote street play across the borough, and to support residents through the process of consulting with neighbours, applying for the formal road closure, and running play sessions.

also ran regular workshops, providing information and advice for residents, and attended meetings with interested residents, schools and community groups. Since October 2013, local street play support and coordination in Hackney has been delivered (still by ) via Hackney Play Association. At the end of March 2014 activity in Hackney was as follows::

• 20 streets in Hackney had played out (including two schools) and 7 new streets were about to come on board (including three schools)

• 17 of these streets had played out more than once • 14 streets were currently active. • 2 housing estates were about to start resident –led playing out sessions • An estimated 540 children and 270 adults had been involved with street play

sessions Play street activity levels across the UK At the end of March 2014, 30 local authorities around the UK were actively supporting street play activities and a further 12 were interested in doing so. The active LAs were:

• Adur & Worthing Council • Birmingham City Council • Brighton & Hove Council • Bristol City Council • Croydon Council • Doncaster Council • Ealing Council • Enfield Council • Hackney Council • Haringey Council • Herefordshire/ Hereford District • Hertfordshire County Council • Islington Council • Lambeth Council • Leeds City Council • Lewisham Council • Monmouthshire County Council • Newcastle City Council • North Somerset

• Norwich City Council • Oxford City Council • Reading Borough Council • Redditch Borough Council • Sheffield City Council • Southwark Council • Stockport Council • Sutton Council • Swansea Council • Waltham Forest Council • West Sussex County Council


At the end of the year Playing Out knew of 103 streets which were holding street play sessions. They were spread around the UK as follows: Local Authority Number of active

streets Barking and Dagenham 1 Birmingham City Council 3 Brighton and Hove 3 Bristol City Council 33 Ealing Council 1 Enfield Council 3 Hackney Council 17 Haringey Council 3 Hertfordshire County Council 1 Islington Council 1 Lambeth council 2 Leeds 1 Lewisham Council 1 Manchester City Council 1 Norfolk County Council 1 Northamptonshire County Council

1

North Somerset Council 1 Reading Borough Council 10 Sheffield City Council 1 Waltham Forest council 2 Adur & Worthing District Councils

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City of York Council 1 What have we learnt through the year? What’s worked well in Bristol: Having an individual who is working in their own neighbourhood and is able to give specific, practical and tailored support has been very productive and effective, and has now resulted in the area (Easton and Ashley) becoming a leading ‘playing out’ neighbourhood. This is a model we may roll out across the city if we can identify suitable individuals and communities. Having local champions e.g. neighbourhood partnership staff, Active Travel to School Officers, has given us links into school and streets. TRESA in Totterdown is another example of a local organisation who are keen to get playing out going. We have also linked up with Parents 4 Play and other local organisations who are supportive, help promote playing out and are great links into the communities. We are continuing to build these links and make the most of our partners experience and knowledge of local areas. After the success with Luckwell school, we have started working with other schools to promote playing out and, ideally, demonstrate it. Luckwell has done two events and is planning a third.


Horfield School will be closing the road by the school in May for a ‘taster’ playing out session. Fishponds CofE Academy is having a Stay & Play session with Playing Out on 3rd April. We are in discussion with other schools about similar events. Giving face-to-face advice and support is the most effective element of our work. Barriers There is still opposition from some residents. We have helped support and resolve complaints where we can. We have a number of outstanding issues with the advice and support from the council, and the sharing of information. We hope to resolve these soon. We have limited resources to promote playing out on a citywide level e.g. at events or by leaflet distribution, so there are some areas that are still unaware of the concept. Other factors We are hoping the 20mph roll-out across Bristol will encourage drivers to be more cautious, and may encourage more streets to play informally as well as using the Playing Out model. There is a gradual and growing change in culture but it is slow. For example, recently, a playing out session was planned but couldn’t happen due to a lack of stewards. Instead children played on the pavement in a less formal way, something that would never have happened, particularly at this time of year, before playing out. We are trying to go to community events to raise the profile of playing out. It is hard to judge the effectiveness of these but it seems to take time to reach the right people in an area, and often they need to see Playing Out a few times before taking any action. We are also developing a more professional display set so we can be more visible at such events. During the year we were able to secure additional resources for our work in Bristol including £10k from Healthy Communities programme of the People’s Health Trust to work with communities in Easton and Ashley (work we are likely to continue thanks to funding from the Department of Health) and £2,500 funding for creative outreach projects from the Creative Seed fund. Feedback received Here is a sample of some of the feedback with have received from people across Bristol during the year: "I haven’t heard the phrase ‘playing out’ in thirty years! How wonderful to see the children out as we used to be”. “this is awesome!” small child playing out for the first time


“Thanks for your help today Ellie and your advice and support in setting up - it was a wonderful sight to come round the corner and see so many children in the road playing” – street organiser “We...just want to say we think the playing out scheme is fab and we wholeheartedly support it. We don't have kids but both enjoyed playing in our own streets when we were young. Fantastic idea, Well done!” – feedback from residents given to street organisers in north Bristol “just wanted to say a huge thank you to Peter Goddard for coming to our meeting last week - gave us food for thought indeed! we've decided to have some casual street playtime over the autumn/winter and then put in an application in the spring!” “Had our first playing out session this afternoon - no rain and loads of people out. We had a fire wok and toasted marshmallows. Really good vibe from everyone. Thanks Pete for helping us” - Easton Street organise What has worked well across England? For a small team, working nationally necessarily means that contact with residents has to be somewhat at a distance and individuals may feel isolated if they do not know of other active people in their areas. However, during the year we have used various means to create a sense of community amongst those interested in street play. Central to this has been our use of Facebook groups to enable discussions and sharing of experience and requests for advice. Additionally our downloadable resources to support residents has enabled people to find the information they need. The event for local activators was really helpful in helping the team understand how best to support people trying to get street play sessions started where they live. Feedback from participants showed that they also found the event to be really useful, one said “It was very enjoyable and informative – really good to meet people in person and I think money well spent in fuelling the network and planting some new seeds. During 2014/15 we will be working to further develop how we support local activators. Barriers One of the barriers to supporting residents who want to get playing out sessions going in their streets is the different approaches taken by different councils. During the next year Playing Out will continue to build up the picture of what is going on where and seek to make this available to residents throughout the country. In part this will be done via a new website and map.

playing out end of year report march 2014€¦ · march 2014 playing out page 2 end of year report...

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