Play and Playwork

Play and Playwork trades under the name of Meynell Games, which has been working to create better play opportunities for children and young people since 1985. Our organisations have charitable objectives and some have previously existed as social enterprises. All of our work is within the context of children’s play, this work under pinned by article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and by General Comment 17 (GC17) that expands the understanding of this article. Play and Playwork is involved in all aspects of provision from working directly with children and young people, through training and providing services to those who also work with children and young people, to developing national strategy and working with leaders and politicians to direct policy and approach. We have been working actively through 2015/16 leading the development of the new playwork National Occupational Standards. Our front-line work includes working in after school clubs, adventure playgrounds and other similar staffed playwork settings as well as mobile playwork and play-ranging. We work with children primarily across the range 18 months - 18 years. The training services are delivered to workers across the children's workforce including nursery, early years, play and youth work, teachers and other who work in schools. This training is delivered at all levels of training from CPD to Level 5 (England and Wales QCF). Our support services include: the publication of iP-D!P Magazine which is a free weekly publication with a readership of around 10,000. Our subscriber database, whilst being predominantly UK, also has readership across Europe; working as a specialist bookseller for books relevant to the play and youth worlds [all the books have been read and approved by members of the staff team] available from www.playbooks.org.uk; the provision of resource boxes and the support that goes with that; the delivery of the National Playwork Conference [www.playworkconferences.org] the biggest national gathering of play and playwork professionals in the UK. In addition we initiated and now organise the only annual awards ceremony for playwork. The Annual Playwork Awards take place in March each year. We are driven by the desire to provide for a better future for children and youth. We are a small organisation but with a large impact, based on the south coast of England. Our work has recently been described ‘as the glue that holds the sector together’.