London Play has won nearly £100k in funding to support adventure playgrounds and ensure the capital’s most vulnerable children can enjoy a summer of play.

London Play press release

With adventure playgrounds preparing to reopen in very different guises this summer, funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, will enable London Play to ensure that adventurous play is within reach of those children and families who could otherwise be excluded from their offer.

The Neighbourhood Play Havens project will give families a private hour of play at least once a week, in safe local spaces – including those that  have a member who is clinically extremely vulnerable to coronavirus.

Many playgrounds are planning to open for pre-booked consistent groups or bubbles of up to 15 children. This will limit the overall number of children who are able to attend during the summer period and will also be likely to exclude those children who are living with vulnerable family members – or are themselves extremely vulnerable to coronavirus.

We will work with five London adventure playgrounds to enable children and their families who are most in need to experience a free weekly hour-long play session in their local safe space to play. Play workers will also benefit from specialised training to help adapt their practice and enable them to support quality play experiences in the context of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.