Wrexham Play Survey for Parents and Carers

Why are we doing this?: In 2012 the Welsh Government passed a law meaning that every three years all local authorities in Wales must carry out an assessment of children’s opportunities for playing in their local communities

An animated video of the findings from Wrexham’s first ‘play sufficiency assessment’ in 2013 can be found here: www.wrexham.gov.uk/play 

Wrexham Council must now complete and submit a new ‘play sufficiency assessment’ to the Welsh Government by the end of March 2016.

What do we want to know?: By filling in and sharing this survey you will be helping us to build a picture of what it’s currently like for children playing in Wrexham. We will then use the information to try and find ways of protecting and improving children’s time and space for playing.

What we found out: 

In the 2016 play sufficiency survey 73% of children rated their satisfaction with their opportunities for play as ‘good’ or ‘great’, 19% rated it as ‘ok but in need of improvement’ and 8% rated it ‘not good or rubbish. This compares with 70%, 20% and 10% respectively in 2013, suggesting an improvement of 3% in overall satisfaction levels. However whilst the 2013 survey included all ages of children, the 2016 survey only involved 9 and 10 year olds (those in year five at school). If only the results from children aged 9 and 10 in 2013 are taken into account then the overall satisfaction levels have increased by more like 5%.

In contrast to children, 36% of parents in the 2016 survey rated their satisfaction with their children’s opportunities for play as ‘good’ or ‘great’, 34% rated them as ‘ok but in need of improvement’ and 30% rated them ‘not good or rubbish.’ This compares with 26%, 34% and 40% respectively in 2013, suggesting a 10% improvement in satisfaction levels.

What difference has it made?: 

The Welsh Government’s statutory guidance for completing play sufficiency assessments sets out nine ‘matters’ that need to be taken into account each containing a range of specific criteria that Wrexham must offer a progress report against. When considering the above re-developed priorities against each of these matters Wrexham’s second PSA identifies the following key ‘systems’, which together would enable the Local Authority and its partners to work towards securing sufficient opportunities for children’s play across the county borough:

Planning for Play

Playwork as Community Development

 Professional Development for Play

Play Development Team

 Policies for Play

Partnerships for Play