HL Deb 09 June 1999 vol 601 c167WA
Lord Kennet

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will explain in ordinary English the meaning of the advertisement from the project manager of the Royal Parks Agency for proposals to develop a "playground dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales, viz the design for the playground is required to create an outstanding, innovative play environment which caters not just for children's physical development but also provide opportunities for a wider range of play types (for example, symbolic, socio-dramatic, social creative, communication, exploratory, fantasy, imaginative, locomotor, mastery, object, role and dramatic play". [HL2611]

Lord McIntosh of Haringey

Responsibility for the subject of this Question has been delegated to the Royal Parks Agency under its Chief Executive, David Welch, and I have therefore asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from the Head of Policy of the Royal Parks Agency, Viviane Robertson, dated 9 June 1999.

In the absence of the Chief Executive, David Welch, I have been asked by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to reply to your Parliamentary Question about the meaning of the advertisement for a playground dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales.

The purpose of the advertisement placed in the European Journal, and in appropriate trade journals, was to invite expressions of interest from designers who are play experts and would be capable of designing specialised play equipment which would encourage children to be more innovative and to participate in different types of play. We were not looking for responses from providers of standard play equipment. The examples of types of play quoted are taken from "A Playworkers Taxonomy of Play Types" by Bob Hughes. Definitions of some of the examples listed are:

Locomotor play means movement in any and every direction, examples being chase, tag, hide and seek.

Socio-dramatic play means the enactment of real and potential experiences of an intense personal, social, domestic or interpersonal nature. (Example: Playing at house, going to the shops, being mothers and fathers, organising a meal or even having a row.)

Although they sound unusual in the prosaic setting of an advertisement, their meaning will have been recognised by the play experts.