6. What action is the Welsh Government taking to ensure that opportunities for play are available and accessible to all children? OQ58356

Access to high-quality play opportunities is critical for the social, emotional and physical development of all children. I am proud that Wales was the first country to legislate, guaranteeing children's right to play by ensuring local authorities secure sufficient opportunities, via the play sufficiency duty.

Thank you, Minister, for that response. I absolutely recognise what you said about play being absolutely important for physical and mental health. I welcome initiatives such as the Summer of Fun scheme to extend play. However, I've had recent discussions with Scope, and they suggest that equipment is often inaccessible to disabled children and many playgrounds are not designed with full accessibility in mind. In fact, half of the parents with disabled children say there is some accessibility problem with their local playground. Obviously, that means that many young people can't feel included in their play. Wales has a clear commitment to be a play-friendly country, and so dedicated investment is needed to support this ambition. Deputy Minister, I wonder what conversations you've had with your Cabinet colleagues about the steps that can be taken to improve accessibility to playgrounds. And will you consider calls to create an inclusive playground fund to co-produce new and improve existing playgrounds with disabled children and their families? Thank you.

I thank Peter Fox very much for that question. I am aware of Scope, and I've had a letter from Scope as well. Welsh Government officials have met with Scope officials already twice this year. I can absolutely assure you of our continuing commitment to provide opportunities for all children and young people to play in safety and to support improved access to play for disabled children. Both the Welsh Government and the play sector in Wales favour inclusive play where able-bodied and disabled children are able to play together, and this is supported by the Children's Play Policy Forum and UK Play Safety Forum, who released a joint position statement this year supporting inclusive play, which, of course, goes beyond accessible playgrounds. Local authorities, as I'm sure the Member will know, are required to ensure that there are sufficient play opportunities for all children in line with the provisions under section 11 of the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010, and this includes specific provision for the consideration of the needs of disabled children. So, local authorities should be looking at this already.

Just to give an indication about how much support is being put in by the Welsh Government, since the play sufficiency duty was introduced in November 2012, we've made £33.330 million revenue funding available to local authorities to enable them to meet the requirements—that's since 2012—but, for the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22, we awarded local authorities a total of £8 million COVID recovery capital funding, which gave authorities the flexibility to purchase large items and refurbish playgrounds and access to playgrounds. 

Deputy Minister, when you and I have discussed inclusive play previously, we've agreed that key to improving access to these opportunities is making sure that information is easily available so that parents, guardians, children, young people and families know what inclusive play is available and where it's located. How will Welsh Government work with partners to ensure this sort of information is shared—something that's important all through the year, but especially as we look to the summer holidays?

Thank you very much, Vikki Howells, for that question. I know how diligently you've pursued this issue. A local authority family information service can inform parents and carers about the availability and location of play opportunities, and they'll be also able to signpost parents and carers to the play team, who are best placed to assess their needs. Many local councils in Wales have information about accessibility on the play sections of their websites, and we encourage local authorities to do this as part of their play sufficiency actions. Local authorities should be working collaboratively across a range of key policy areas, and this will enable local authorities to collaborate to support the needs of local people. So, local authorities have a duty to do this, and they have a duty to inform the public. I'm aware that the Member would like there to be something much more specific, so I'll tell her that we will discuss with local authorities about any more that can be done so that people know where the facilities are available, particularly with the Summer of Fun coming up now.