In 2022, the Scottish Government launched a consultation on Play Sufficiency Assessments, Open Space Strategies and the National Planning Framework 4.
Play Scotland partnered with A Place in Childhood to ensure that the voices of children and young people were heard in this consultation.
What we did
- Worked with the Scottish Government to produce a child-friendly version of the consultation.
- Produced a podcast on engaging with children and young people on their local spaces. Listen to the podcast here.
- Created a short film explaining what open space strategies and play sufficiency are and how to get involved.
- Created consultation packs for groups that explained clearly how to run a successful engagement.
- Created a straightforward survey for individuals to use if they were not part of a group consultation.
- Emailed over 2,000 schools asking them to get involved.
- Worked with Generations Working Together and YWCA to access their networks.
- Worked with Scrap Antics to respond to the consultation with a public art installation.
- Promoted the consultation on social media, garnering over 30,000 impressions.
- Sent out certificates to all the groups that submitted a response.
What was the impact
We collected responses from 1,056 children and young people for the Play Sufficiency and Open Space Strategy engagement. 130 were from the individual survey and 926 were from 27 groups.
We collected 507 responses from children and young people from 8 different groups for the NPF4 engagement.
We had responses from Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Borders, Dumfries and Galloway Council, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow, Midlothian, Moray, North Lanarkshire, Perth & Kinross, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, West Dunbartonshire, West Lothian, City of Edinburgh, and Highland Council.
The feedback we received from the groups involved was very positive.
Culbokie Fun Club said:
“The children felt it was important to share views on their community and do it in their own way. They enjoyed talking about what their favourite things to do are in the village and coming up with a wish for the area. We did a mix of small group discussions and talking one to one to get all our feedback. The children liked seeing our certificate for taking part and we have it displayed in our club”
What’s Next
We are working to develop training and guidance for local authorities to support them to fulfil their new obligations under this legislation.
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