National Playday – 4 August 2010: Tone Leisure Backs The Importance of Free Play for Children

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) August 2, 2010 -- Tone Leisure will be celebrating this year’s National Playday by holding eight play events funded by the Big Lottery throughout the summer as part of the trust’s commitment to developing local play opportunities – something Tone considers a vital part of children’s health and wellbeing.

This year the theme of Playday is ‘Our Place’, aiming to put children at the heart of communities and encourage them to play outside in the areas in which they live. Playday research* shows that 71% of adults used to play daily near their home when they were children, compared to only 21% of children today. A typical 8–10 year old now spends around five hours per day in front of a screen and is rarely allowed to explore their surroundings without an adult. Additional figures recently released by The British Toy and Hobby Association and Play England** show that the average child has just over an hour’s playtime per day and that most parents would like to see that time doubled. One in ten said they feel their children have increasingly structured days and one in five said their children don’t have enough time to just be children.

Having secured around £32,000 of funding over the past four years for local play opportunities Tone, a non-profit leisure trust and social enterprise, has developed a dedicated play programme which runs alongside its health and sports development programmes. Tone’s outdoor play activities, which form part of the programme and include Wild About Play Days, Play Rangers, Giant Camps and Giant Play Days, are designed to provide children with safe environments in which to play within their communities, helping address the concern that children no longer participate in enough unstructured free play.
The events, which allow children and their families to take part in activities such as archery, woodland crafts, sports, skateboarding and lots more, prove very popular with children in the Somerset and Devon communities in which they’re operated. The Wild About Play Days alone have attracted over 1,000 children since they began in 2008 and the Giant Play Days attract over 400 children per year.

All of Tone’s free play activities are free of charge and as a non-profit trust, Tone relies hugely on funding from organisations such as the Big Lottery Fund and local sources like Somerset Play Forum, both of which Tone has successfully secured funding from recently.

“As a non-profit trust and social enterprise it’s our responsibility to seek out funding streams in areas that we view as important to the health and wellbeing of the communities in which we operate,” said Ali Cottey, Inclusive Play Officer at Tone. “We’re delighted to have secured the funding we have so far for our play programmes but in the current economic climate it’s inevitable that some sources of funding will come to an end. Hopefully Playday on 4 August and the results of the recent research will help highlight just how important play is within the wider health and fitness picture.”

Although the theme of outdoor play within the community is one Tone will carry throughout the summer Ali is keen to emphasise the value of play as integral part of the trust’s strategy rather than a simply a seasonal way to appeal to children.

“We see play alongside sports and health as one of our three key development areas and it’s important to view it as a year-round focus,” added Ali. “Free play encourages creativity, risk-taking and imagination, and helps develop self-esteem and social skills. As a social enterprise we’re committed to providing safe environments in which children can play both in our centres and within communities where they’re most needed.”

-ENDS-

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Notes to editors:
o *ICM opinion poll for Playday 2007
o **Research by the British Toy and Hobby Association and Play England based on a poll of 2,000 parents with children under 13, conducted between 4 and 8 June 2010.

o Tone Leisure is a progressive leisure trust with charitable status, which operates and manages leisure facilities on behalf of local authorities. www.toneleisure.org.uk
o As an organisation in receipt of the Social Enterprise Mark, Tone Leisure is recognised as a company working primarily for social and environmental aims and trading to benefit people and planet.
o It is one of only a handful of leisure trusts to provide sports and health development services as well as facilities management.

childrens health     play     Playday