Explore Play Wales
Cardiff has received global recognition as the first city in the UK to be awarded UNICEF Child Friendly City status.
The award aims to celebrate cities where children’s rights, including their right to play, have been embedded in policies and services.
Cardiff Council launched its Child Friendly Strategy in 2018. Over the last five years, it has collaborated with UNICEF UK and children and young people’s organisations to undertake projects that prioritise children’s rights.
The programme has achieved several milestones related to promoting children’s right to play, including:
- 40,000 children and young people have participated in Summer of Fun and Winter of Wellbeing events.
- 66,324 children aged 5 to 14 have accessed local authority play provision since April 2020.
- 50 teams of children were engaged with to design new areas of the city through Minecraft Education.
Leader of Cardiff Council, Councillor Huw Thomas, said the council’s policies had ’empowered children and young people to be meaningfully involved in decisions that matter to them, enabling services to meet their needs and adults to be more accountable for the way children and young people’s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled’.