Senedd Cymru (previously the National Assembly for Wales) has supported children’s play since it was established in 1999.
In 2000, Senedd Cymru distributed a £1m Play Grant to local authorities. It also commissioned a review of open access play in Wales, looking at how local authorities spent the Play Grant. The State of Play: a review of open access play provision in Wales and the Play 2000 grant scheme report called for a national play policy and strategy.
At a national level, Play Wales has worked with the Welsh Government to develop its Play Policy, Play Policy Implementation Plan, legislation, regulations and guidance. We also drafted the report for the Ministerial Review of Play Steering Group (2022) and accompanying background paper.
Between 2000 and 2012, we carried out national State of Play reviews. These strategic documents are used by Play Wales and the Welsh Government to explore subjects relating to children’s play in Wales. Their purpose was to provide information about:
- how various national policies and funding programmes supported play provision at local level
- common issues concerning children’s play.
In 2010, Wales became the first country in the world to pass a law about opportunities to play. The law makes it a legal requirement for local authorities to carry out Play Sufficiency Assessments (PSAs). The first of these three-yearly PSAs were submitted to the Welsh Government in 2013.
Since 2013, we have worked with the Welsh Government to review and report on the local authority PSAs, progress reports and action plans.