PLANNING for PLAY

PlayNation drills into the detail of Play England’s submissions to the government consultations on national planning policy and guidance

Play England has submitted a formal response to the Government’s consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance (DPPPG). The response sets out changes that it says are “required to ensure the proposed reforms deliver meaningful improvements in children’s access to play”.

Play England’s proposed changes include the following:

Creating clear definitions of play space National planning policy should clearly define what constitutes play space so that meaningful provision cannot be replaced with minimal or incidental spaces.

A play sufficiency approach to planning Planning authorities should assess whether children have sufficient opportunities to play across their neighbourhoods, considering quantity, quality, accessibility, inclusivity and integration.

Accessibility-based standards for play Planning policy should move beyond outdated acreage-based standards and instead adopt accessibility measures based on walking distance.

Stronger protection for existing play spaces The Government should maintain the strong protections for formal play spaces introduced into the NPPF in 2024.

Use of spatial evidence to assess provision Planning decisions should be supported by robust spatial analysis to identify where play provision is insufficient and where inequalities exist.

Response to NPPF

Play features across multiple sections of the NPFF, including sections 6 (delivering a sufficient supply of homes), 14 (achieving well-designed places) and 16 (promoting healthy communities). These proposals underscore the Government’s growing recognition of the importance of promoting, protecting and enhancing safe, inclusive and accessible spaces for play. They also build on the shift in national planning policy secured in December 2024, when the NPPF was amended to explicitly recognise the need to protect formal play spaces.

According to Play England, however, several aspects of the proposed policy changes require clarification to ensure they are operationalised effectively. As a result, Play England’s consultation response highlights the need for stronger national evidence to support planning decisions about children’s play.

“Understanding where play spaces are located, how accessible they are and how provision varies across communities is essential if planning policy is to address the significant inequalities that exist in children’s access to play,” Play England states.

To support this, Play England has been working in partnership with the University of Sheffield to develop Playces, a national spatial evidence platform for children’s play. The underlying dataset maps almost 34,000 playgrounds across England, analysing playground count, playground size, distance to provision and relationship to deprivation.

According to Eugene Minogue, Play England’s Executive Director, the analysis demonstrates that children living in more deprived areas often have access to fewer, smaller and more distant play spaces, highlighting significant inequalities in access to play across England.

“Playces has been developed to support evidence-led planning for children’s play, enabling local authorities to assess play provision through a play sufficiency approach,” Minogue said. “By bringing together national spatial data and analytical tools, the platform will help identify gaps in provision and support monitoring of improvements in play opportunities over time as local plans and new developments are delivered. “This kind of national spatial evidence will be increasingly important as planning authorities move toward assessing play sufficiency within local plans and development decisions.”

Response to DPPPG

In its response to the Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance (DPPPG), Play England welcomes the government’s focus on play areas and spaces, rather than playgrounds alone. Play is referenced across multiple elements of the DPPPG, including the Seven Features of Well-Designed Places, the design quality process and the setting of design codes.

“This breadth of reference represents a significant step forward in recognising the role of play across the built environment,” Play England states.

However, in its response, Play England also calls for several amendments to ensure the policy intentions translate into effective implementation.

These include the following:

Define play spaces clearly

What constitutes “play space” must be clearly defined so that planning and built environment professionals can consistently understand and distinguish between formal and informal play spaces.

Ensure consistency between the DPPPG and the NPPF Cross-referencing between the DPPPG and the NPPF is needed to ensure the NPPF’s intentions for play are supported by clear and practical guidance.

Update standards for play provision Accessibility standards for play provision should be based on contemporary spatial evidence and reflect the scale of inequalities in access to play across England.

Promote quality, accessibility and inclusion, not quantity alone The guidance should make clear that play provision must be adequate in quantity, quality, accessibility, inclusivity and integration within community infrastructure.

Address inequalities in play provision Planning guidance should recognise and respond to significant inequalities in access to play spaces across England.

Strengthen accessibility standards for play spaces Design codes should include clear proximity standards for play spaces to ensure children can access play within their everyday neighbourhoods.

Embed spatial evidence through Playces Playces should be recognised as a robust tool to support play sufficiency assessment, local analysis, monitoring and evaluation.

Ensure effective statutory oversight An effective statutory consultee remains necessary to ensure planning decisions affecting formal and informal play provision are informed by specialist expertise. Sport England should continue to act as the statutory consultee.

A critical opportunity for national policy

According to Play England, the consultations represent a critical opportunity to strengthen national planning policy, so that it better supports play.

“With clearer policy, better spatial evidence and stronger protection for play spaces, the planning system can play a central role in restoring children’s access to play,” Minogue added. “We will continue working with the government, parliament and the built environment sector to ensure that children’s right to play is fully recognised within the planning system and embedded in the places where children live. These consultations mark an important step in that work.

“We would like to thank Michael Martin (School of Geography and Planning) and Paul Brindley (School of Architecture and Landscape) at the University of Sheffield for their assistance with the formal response.”