When is a playground not a playground
I wanted to reassure residents that I’ve not taken leave of my senses, and contrary to reports in the media, Watford Borough Council has not banned parents from public parks and playgrounds in the town!
This is about our adventure playgrounds, which are closed-off, fenced-in, fully supervised facilities for over 5s. Parents drop off their kids and leave them in our care - no different to playgroups or schools where adults are also not allowed to stay. We have a responsibility to those parents to safeguard their kids, and provide the best possible environment for them.
What has happened is that at Harwoods a handful of parents have been staying on, not just dropping their kids off. After a number of incidents, staff that run the facility felt that the presence of these parents was hampering their ability to supervise the kids properly – who remember are engaging in risky play and do need to be given full attention. They’ve now brought the site in line with Harebreaks, where parents don’t stay on and they have no problems.
Quotes attributed to me have been taken out of context – I’m not saying adults shouldn’t be allowed on playgrounds – I’d go out and shoot myself if this was the case – only on these specialised play facilities! We have 40 other playgrounds elsewhere in the Borough where parents are welcome to stay.
What I have taken from this is the importance of the accuracy of language and the power of the web - none of these news stories would have appeared if we didn’t refer to our adventure play sessions as adventure playgrounds.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by MayorDorothy: For the real story, read here: http://tiny.cc/PfsPL
October 29th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
“this increased to the extent that staff felt they were spending more time worrying about what the parents were up to rather than watching and supervising the children!”
Because they must be pedo’s right?
Did the parents actually cause any issues, what are these “incidents” you allure to.
Considering you have used lack of CRB checking as the reason for baring them, do you not think it reasonable to explain what danger they posed to the kiddies, and if such measures where proportionate.
“Imagine what those same papers would say if a child was snatched from the playground and we were accused of allowing free access of adults onto our site.”
And do you make decisions based on “what the papers might say”?
October 29th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Out of context? Okay - let’s look at this phrase “when we take a positive decision to safeguard children, by ensuring that all children left at a supervised play session are only left under the care of qualified CRB checked and legit staff….” How is it possible to read that without seeing the meaning that CRB checked staff are preferable to parents? You say you are “safeguarding” children, by keeping parents out. You *say* this. How is that warping your meaning, by taking remarks out of context?
October 30th, 2009 at 12:26 am
[…] how best to spin it (presumably at the cost of Watford taxpayers) and came back with the so-called “real story”. Which is almost a complete reversal of her original […]
October 30th, 2009 at 7:38 am
[…] This post was Twitted by Pam_Nash […]
October 31st, 2009 at 12:17 am
I can see what you are saying - you are equating these playgrounds to licensed facilities. I assume that these are licensed facilities with all the facilities that are required and the ‘rangers’ are also qualified childcare professionals…yes?
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Dorothy
I find your change of reason for not allowing parents to stay a touch bizarre, but leaving that aside I’m concerned about the contradiction between “Parents drop off their kids and leave them in our care - no different to playgroups or schools where adults are also not allowed to stay”, and the statement on the booking form, which you require parents to accept in writing, that:
“The Adventure Playground is an ‘Open Access’ Facility. This means that children can come and go as they please, without restriction.”
Why are 5-10 year olds for whom your staff are temporarily responsible allowed to leave without their parents? Could you explain?
Rgds
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Harebrakes is in a completetly different setting, harwoods is situated next to a school and also a very close knit community…….
These series of incidents please, can you provide us with examples, cause i stay there for long periods, and have never witnessed them
I even heard that parents were never allowed to stay on this site, and it is not a facility for under fives, so i will like to draw your attention to this ofsted report conducted in 2007, for this facility
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxcare_reports/display/(id)/30504
November 6th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Dorothy
Thanks for your email reply.
Matt