Children's Play Unit: Funding (Hansard, 23 March 1993)

Viscount Astor
My Lords, the Sports Council will take over the play unit's responsibilities from next week for the National Play Information Centre and playwork education and training, together with seven of the unit's current staff.

§ Baroness Hamwee
My Lords, is the Minister aware that to many people involved with children's play, that looks more like bureaucratic convenience and cost savings than anything else? Will the Minister urge the Government to set up a proper inquiry into the place of play in children's development and how it should be funded?

Viscount Astor
My Lords, the decision has followed detailed consideration of the issues. My department has been involved in the play unit's management committee, which has on it representatives of voluntary and private sector interests in play and local authority associations. We also consulted formally with the National Voluntary Council for Children's Play and the local authority associations. We are pleased that the Sports Council is taking on that role.

§ Lord Ennals
My Lords, is the Minister aware that many people have concluded that the inadequacy of child care and child play facilities is one—and only one—of the reasons for the increase in crime? Does the Minister accept that very few organisations support the idea that that responsibility should now be handed to the Sports Council? Will the Department of National Heritage now carry out the survey which it 162 promised to carry out with proper consultation with all organisations concerned, including the local authority associations?

Viscount Astor
My Lords, I said that we have had consultations. I must tell your Lordships that the play unit has experienced management and other problems, many of which were similar to those experienced by its predecessor, the play board. We have concluded that a separate national play organisation is not the best way forward. There would be advantages in integrating any continuing play function more fully into the management structure of an existing organisation. That is what we have done.

§ Lord Gilmour of Craigmillar
My Lords, will the Government look again at this matter? The proposal seems to be cripplingly defective in at least two respects. Is the Minister aware that the Sports Council is the wrong body to deal with this? Apart from being accounting officer in the past, it has never had anything to do with it. The Government seem to confuse play with sport, which is an error. Is the Minister aware also that the proposed funding is grossly inadequate? Will he do something about that?

Viscount Astor
My Lords, I cannot agree with my noble friend. We are anxious to see that the new arrangements should be given time to settle. This year will see the replacement of the Sports Council by the UK Sports Commission and the Sports Council for England. Once those bodies are established, it will be appropriate for us to consider with them how this policy area is developing. The focus of play has been the provision of play areas such as playgrounds for children and after-school and holiday-care schemes. The Sports Council will continue to play an important role in the provision of children's play for five to 14 year-olds. The Sports Council will take on the responsibilities of the National Play Information Centre and playwork education and training. That is a very positive way forward.

§ Lord Donoughue
My Lords, will the Minister look carefully at the words of the noble Lord. Lord Gilmour, every one of which I agree with? Many of the organisations which have been consulted have disagreed with the Government's decision. Will the Minister accept that there is no prospect of that important activity having any high priority in the considerations of the Sports Council, which has enormous financial pressures on its allocations to much more mainstream sporting activities?

Viscount Astor
My Lords, I disagree with the noble Lord, Lord Donoughue. The Sports Council has considered carefully what resources are appropriate for this work and is making the necessary provision within its budget. It has agreed a base sum of £220,000; but it is considering also the possibility of additional funding for the four national centres for playwork education and the National Voluntary Council for Children's Play.
163 At a meeting of the National Voluntary Council for Children's Play in February 1992, the unit was criticised on a number of grounds. I quote from an extract of the minutes: Not enough attention had been paid to prioritising the work of the play unit. Those on the management committee felt that they did not have a clear remit and had been discouraged from taking an active role. The unit has worked in an insular and isolated way and had not collaborated sufficiently with other organisations". That is why we took the decision which we did.

§ Lord Donoughue
My Lords, will the Minister confirm that the budgeted £220,000 in the Sports Council's allocation compares with £830,000 centrally allocated the year before, and £1,130,000 allocated in the year before that? Is that not rather a devastating cut?

Viscount Astor
No, my Lords. The budget is £220,000. The reason that it was more than that previously is because it included provision for three specific projects called Children Today projects which ran from 1989 to 1992 with a total funding of £552,000. Those were grant-funded projects for a specific period. That period and those projects have now come to an end.

§ Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish
My Lords, can my noble friend give any assurance to a mere Scotsman that all this talk of play and sports councils will improve the English performance at cricket and rugby?

Viscount Astor
My Lords, I am sure that your Lordships will join with me in congratulating my noble friend's captain, Gavin Hastings, on his captaincy of the British Lions on their forthcoming tour of New Zealand. I am sure that it will be an extremely successful tour.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords—

§ Lord Ennals
My Lords, if the Government have carried out that survey, will they publish it—

§ The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Wakeham)
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Molloy, has not yet asked a question on this subject.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord the Leader of the House and I note his sense of fair play. Is the Minister aware that many people working for voluntary organisations give a great deal of time and effort to these matters? Were they consulted about these changes? Will they be consulted with regard to the future of that extremely valuable British organisation?

Viscount Astor
My Lords, there has been detailed consideration of the issues and consultations with many representatives of the voluntary and private sectors. The problem was that the play unit's detailed priorities have not always been clear or subject to proper scrutiny by the management committee. Anxieties have been expressed about the weakness of the unit's relationships with other organisations in the 164 field. That is why the decision was made. We look forward to the Sports Council taking on that extremely important role.

§ Baroness Hamwee
My Lords, will the Minister accept that a child's right to play is recognised in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child, which the United Kingdom ratified in 1991? Sport is not mentioned in that convention. Perhaps that may be for the reasons so well expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Gilmour; namely, that sport is but one part of a child's play which extends to emotional, intellectual and social development, and so on.

Viscount Astor
My Lords, as I said, the focus has been on the provision of playground areas, and so on. The noble Baroness is right. The UN Convention on the Rights of a Child came into force in this country on 15th January 1992. This Government have an excellent record on caring for children. From now on that care will be based on the Children's Act, which meets the obligations in whole or in part of 13 of the main 40 articles of the convention. This Government have played a major part in drafting that convention.