A national programme for outdoor play
WCF is very excited to be one of 20 Community Foundations across the UK to be selected to take part in the development of the new Free to Play UK programme, focusing on initiatives across the county which will encourage and enable adventurous outdoor play for children aged 0-12.
The project will take place over 5 years, giving us the opportunity to develop an embedded strategy which really meets local needs and will result in sustainable changes to play across the county, particularly supporting children who lack opportunities to access outdoor play facilities or who face personal challenges through disability or poverty.
To enable this, we will be working with UK Community Foundations, the national body Play England, and local partners including child, health and play specialists.
Play is how children build confidence, friendships, physical health and mental resilience. Yet the freedom to play outdoors has narrowed and concern about children’s mental health and inactivity has grown. Together we will work for a local and national cultural shift on how parents, educators, settings and the state think about and resource play – and leave a legacy in terms of spaces, provision and sustainable funding.
This initiative acknowledges play as a right and builds on a long history of practice and research. It learns from and with a sister programme underway in Canada, and is a practical proof of concept for the place-based implementation of the recommendations from ‘Everything to Play for’, the 2025 Play Commission report. It also arrives at a moment of renewed policy interest: a Prime Minister with a play track record, a revitalised All-Party Parliamentary Group on Play, new investment, and the announced social media ban for under-16s.
We look forward to delivering a programme that will really change the ways children play in Worcestershire and enrich their lives into the future. This is not currently open to applications, but we will let the public know in advance of the opening of the live programme.
For further information on Free to Play in Worcestershire please contact [email protected].
Click here to go to the UKCF blog on Free to Play.
