Anglesey Playspace Toolkit

Background:

Play:Disrupt were commissioned by Anglesey County Council’s Supporting Families Unit to develop a toolkit to support community councillors on the island engage with young people on design and decision making for play spaces. Whilst there were some great examples of collaboration with young people, there were also cases of play spaces being actioned without input from their user groups.

Development + Delivery:

The client wished for the toolkit to be embedded in a live project, as well as giving best practice examples from community councils who were already engaging young people in their work. The project encompassed 3 stages; engagement with young people at youth clubs and an additional needs school; a two day playground building exercise with Woodland Tribe – both of these stages centring on new provision for the Pencraig area, and the research, design and development of the toolkit itself, which would include extensive research into work already existing, and include interviews with decision makers and potential toolkit users on the island.

Building on relationships built through Public Map Platform, we worked with young people at Llangefni Youth Club and Canolfan Addysg Y Bont. Using loose parts, we explored ideas for play provision and held sessions with Happenings (our digital mapping tool, developed with Free Ice Cream) to explore locations on the island that supported or negated play. While we focused on the kinds of feelings young people wanted to generate from play spaces, the conversation often centred on safety and access, reflecting recent events in local neighbourhoods and highlighting a historic neglect in terms of play provision in some areas. In terms of equipment, we enjoyed discovering that children really wanted to be spun, super fast ‘to feel sick’ and to have height- to hide away and to enjoy the views.

‘Working with Play Disrupt and Woodland Tribe to engage and truly understand what children and young people’s wants and needs are when considering play spaces was invaluable. Through seeing the joy and enriched environment where children were free to choose and explore how they see and build a play structure was truly inspirational and unforgettable. All this piece of work is aimed to support a localised play toolkit is to ensure that children lead on the design and implementation of any play spaces in Anglesey and have a clear voice in the initial process and on-going running and utilisation of the space.’

Kimberley Coll
Play Development Officer (Children and Families Service, Isle of Anglesey County Council)

‘It was very clear that the project was a huge success. They all had agreat time and wished it went on for longer!

Annette Byrne, Llangefni Youth Club leader

We also did a walkaround of the Pencraig area, learning about its history, talking to residents and exploring the natural and built environment with playful lenses.

The second phase was devised in partnership with Woodland Tribe, inviting them to deliver an adventure playground building session and building relationships with surrounding schools and community stakeholders. We hired the local football club, where there was a MUGA (basketball court) enabling us to leave the structure overnight. We used ideas from the engagement as starting points such as a tower, then the children built ideas using wood, saws, drills, hammers and ropes to explore the kinds of play provision they enjoyed playing in.

“this is amazing…it’s exactly what I’ve asked for and you made it- it’s literally what I imagined”

Llangefni teenager

They followed Woodland Tribe’s mantra PLAY BUILD DREAM. Over 100 local children built benches, ladders, towers and swings. We held sessions with local primary schools and an additional needs school, a girls only session and opened up the project to local families after 3pm.

Anna Hadyock-Wilson (Play:Disrupt Engagement Producer) made a film to thank the families who took part in the project, available to view here.

Working with Play Consultant, Amy Rose, we identified what information we would need to gather and evidence to create the Play Spaces Toolkit. What became clear was that while there was lots of really useful information out there, it was often delivered in a text heavy style and usually written for professionals. We worked with Rhombus Studio to develop more of a scrap book feel, with tear out and play activities and tips to help community council members connect and consult with young people. By interviewing people who the toolkit was designed for, we were able to add excellent best practice and identify barriers to putting the ideas into practice.

The toolkit maps out how to engage communities and commission new play spaces, initiatives, design and equipment, and features activities we have developed along our journey and top tips form those who have come before. It is available in Cymraeg and English.

Anglesey Playspace Toolkit

Background:

Development + Delivery:

English

Cymraeg

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