Play is a social behaviour

Every child has the right to play

The Keep Playing project is all about working with communities and their landlords to improve play opportunities for children close to home.

Talking to children and adults, advocating for childrens rights to play as set out in Article 31 of the UN Convention is an important part of this project as improving play often means having a positive attitude, recognising play as a social behaviour, not an anti social one.

Over summer 2013 the Keep Playing team were out playing all over the borough, at regular play sessions, enjoying local walks and celebrating the opening of new play spaces.

A lady who had lived on Boundary estate as a child 50 years ago stopped to talk at a regular play session. 'Its so nice to see and hear children out playing, I've been walking around the area wondering why is it so quiet everywhere, on a nice day in the school holidays.'

Not everyone agrees and recent news highlighted the discussion when the government propsed a new law to replace Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOS) with IPNAS, Injunction to Prevent Noise and Annoyance

In Janaury 2014 this bill was rejected by 128 votes, 306 to 178 so a sucess but still 178 people voted in support of these plans that a former chief of police said put fundemental freedoms at risk.

Get in touch with the Keep Playing team if you would like to be involved and to make a postive contribution to play where you live. Call Suzannah or Eleanor on 0207 729 3306 for more information.