playmatters

The Perennial Problem of Tiddly Tots

With open access play there are inevitably going to be difficulties in attracting ONLY the children and young people whom one most wishes to target:

• older children, young people, accompanying adults and members of the public can present practical, health & Safety and Safeguarding issues.
• younger children present difficulties for workers for a variety of practical reasons by diverting their attention away from the target age range. They also can present Health, Safety and Safeguarding concerns.

The Playworkers at the ‘P’lay Barton’ play ranger service in Oxford ensure that all leaflets and handouts clearly say that children under 8 should be accompanied by an adult. In addition, children who encounter the rangers as given ‘take home’ sheets (contact cards) which clearly state that our activities are targeted at 8-13 year olds.

The publicity material for the play activities and operational policies state that younger children will not usually be able to join in with sessions and that older people may only join if they follow the rangers rules and behave appropriately.

The guidance constantly uses language such as ‘should’ be accompanied rather than ‘must’ to allow the rangers the opportunity to use their discretion and allow younger children to join when thought appropriate and in the best interests of the child.

This approach is working in some of the areas where the rangers operate, however, in others there is concern that unaccompanied children (as young as three) have been turning up to sessions. This is of concern to the Play Barton rangers because:

• the activities they run are not targeted at this age range,
• the workers have stated that they feel responsible for the additional welfare issues created by the younger cohort
• the younger children divert attention away from the 8-13 group (the target age range) and limit the play value of the service to this group.

Drawing up policy and guidance that:

• clearly explains to parents and children what their responsibilities are and what the workers are there to do
• provides the workers with sufficient flexibility to exercise their judgement when deciding whether to allow a child to join in based on the circumstances
• gives the workers clear guidance when a child should be considered to be ‘neglected’ and treated as a safeguarding concern.

is not straightforward and both policy and practice is constantly evolving. The Play Barton scheme has a policy for ‘grown-ups’, contact sheets and a policy on under 8s in place.

Download the Play Barton Working with Under 8s (and over 13s) Policy