What We Do
The opportunity for children to access space and experience a sense of freedom is central to the philosophy of open access play provision.
Open access play provision offers children control over when, where, who, with and for how long they want to play. The decision making, if not all of the time, is mostly in their hands. This is a powerful element and should not be underestimated. It has the ability to both enable and ennoble the child.
Services from the Playground have always maintained the “Three Frees”
They are:
- Free of charge at the point of entry: No child should be required to pay to use a play provision because play is a fundamental right of all children. Having charges for entry would mean some children would be excluded from the service.
- Free to come and go: Children must feel the freedom to choose when they want to arrive and leave a provision. The provision would offer little benefit for the child if they should feel confined to the play provision.
- Free to choose: In order to assist in the development of self esteem and confidence children should be able to choose what activities they wish to be involved in when attending the Playground.
View the Seven Play Objectives
View Report from Play England on the importance of Open Access Play