Spirit of Play 2007 took place on 17th March and was another successful event for Playwork South East.  This year, we engaged the services of a consultant to organise and run the event, and a full report can be read here.   The report includes photos and details about the workshops, along with notes from the presentations and comments from the delegates themselves.

Vanessa is half-way through her secondment, and we are looking forward to welcoming her back after the summer.  In the meantime, we are very sorry to have to say goodbye to Tony Delahoy, our Endorsement & Quality Officer, who will now be working for Meynell Games on some very exciting projects.  We wish him the best of luck, and will no doubt be hearing all his news soon.

Thank you to everyone in the South East who has filled in SkillsActive's Playworker Survey - if you are an employer, the deadline has been extended to Friday, 27th April, so if you haven't filled it out yet, click here.  Within the 9 SkillsActive regions, the SE has so far performed second best in the amount of responses we managed to pull in, so well done.

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Mark Havler, Countryside Ranger, gives an insight into the pleasures of outside play.

Play Day 2007:  Our Streets Too!!  News on how to plan your event with the help of Play England.

Free Play in Early Childhood:  a new publication launched by Play England at the Play In Early Childhood Provision conference earlier this year, highlights concerns over recent policies that structure young children's lives in pursuit of targets and testing.

Home Zones: Children and young people play out in the street more often than anywhere else. London Play's Home Zones for London project works with communities to transform their streets into safe places for children to play.

Free Range Teenagers:   A study carried out by OpenSpace on behalf of Natural England to investigate the proposition that ‘wild adventure space' can play an important role in meeting the developmental needs of young people across England.

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SkillsActive: Not sure what SkillsActive is and what its connection is to Playwork South East?  Wonder no more! 

Staying Ahead of the Game: Energising the Industry:  You will be pleased to know that the Playwork Sector, under the guidance of SkillsActive, the Sector Skills Council for sport, fitness, playwork, the outdoors and caravanning, has over-performed over the last 5 years compared with the UK economy as a whole, proving Playwork to be an ever-growing industry.  Celebrate at SkillsActive's annual Conference on 1st May at the new Wembley Stadium.

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Nancy Ovens Bursary: SkillsActive have announced that they will again be working with the Nancy Ovens Trust to provide a bursary for training to voluntary leaders.  Deadline 9 May.

Volunteers' Week: a national celebration of volunteers and volunteering which takes place from 1 - 7 June of each year. It plays a huge part in raising the profile of England's 22 million volunteers while encouraging others to get involved.

Collaborative Working within the voluntary and community sector - also known as joint or partnership working - covers a spectrum of ways that two or more organisations can work together. Options range from informal networks and alliances, through joint delivery of projects to full merger. Collaborative working can last for a fixed length of time or can form a permanent arrangement.  Read advice from the NCVO for all voluntary organisations.

Access all Areas: The NCVO has launched a new guide for 'rural friendly' voluntary organisations, to help meet the needs of rural communities.

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Playwork L2 National Occupational Standards Review: The final stage is now under way, and you can read all about it in the SkillsActive TEG (Technical Expert Group) Bulletin. including details of the upcoming consultation process.

Apprenticeships:  Playwork apprenticeships information.

Common Threads: Play theory the easy way, in the shape of 'Busker Guides' covering 5 topics.

Train to Gain: Train to Gain Skills Brokers provide a free, independent and impartial assessment to identify what skills your business needs now and in the future. They can then help you arrange training and provide information about possible sources of funding.

Integrated Qualifications Framework:  The Children's Workforce Development Council is working with its partners in the Children's Workforce Network to develop an Integrated Qualifications Framework (IQF), with the aim to establish more comparative qualifications and to enable practitioners to move more freely between roles within the sector.

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Open Space: a research centre that focuses on inclusive access to outdoor environments - their work covers all types of landscape, in urban or countryside contexts, the benefits it can offer and the barriers to access.

GreenSpace: a registered charity which works to improve parks ands green spaces by raising awareness, involving communities and creating skilled professionals.

Trustee Net:  Charity Trustee Networks (CTN) have set up a  national network of trustees and management committee members, which is free to join.

Volunteering England works to support an increase in the quality, quantity, impact and accessibility of volunteering throughout England. This web site offers a range of resources for anyone who works with or manages volunteers as well as to those who want to volunteer.

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Play England:  all about Play England in the South East.

Play Design Network: Are you interested and involved in creating play spaces?  You may want to join this group.

Safeguarding Children & Young People within the Play Sector: This briefing is for people working in the play sector with managerial responsibility for safeguarding children and young people. It will also be useful for those who work directly, whether paid or unpaid, with children and young people on a regular basis.

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Childrens Workforce Mobility Survey: The views of those working or volunteering with children or young people are being sought to inform policy and improve workfoce development and transferability between sectors.  The survey is designed to gather informtion about what paths individuals took fromtheir entry into the children's workforce to their present position.   Closing date 18th May.

Volunteer Involvement Study: A review of volunteer involvement in the delivery of services for children, young people and families carried out on behalf of CWDC to inform their future planning and development strategies. 

Every Disabled Child Matters:  After this month's budget, we really need help from all our supporters to make disabled children a priority in the Comprehensive Spending Review. If you haven't yet done so, please email your MP and ask them to get involved.  This is the best chance we have ever had to get new resources and a new priority for disabled children's services. Please take a moment to do this action - and if you have more time, please respond to the Treasury online survey which is also at the link above.

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