Islington Play Association Annual Impact Report 2014

2014

Annual Impact Report

What’s inside?

1 Message from the chair

2 Overarching aims

4 Outcomes for 2012 - 2014

6 Campaigning for children’s right to play

8 Securing and protecting play provision

10 Delivering play and childcare services

12 Supporting adventure playgrounds and play providers

14 Sharing knowledge, experience and good practice

16 Financial information for 2013 - 2014

18 Looking forward: 2014 - 2017

20 Structure, governance and management

Welcome to the

Annual Impact Report

for 2014 Our new Annual Impact Report aims to show the work of the charity and it's impact on

the children in Islington. Although we aim to fulfil our contracts with excellence, it

means nothing without asking what difference our work actually makes to the

children. As this is the first year of our new combined annual report and impact report,

we have included information for the years 2012 - 2014.

Message from the chair

Annual Impact Report 2014 | 01

Healthy Holidays Martin Luther King

Treehouse Project

I’m pleased to report on a number of significant achievements made by Islington Play Association (IPA) during this period. In April 2013 IPA took over the running of Islington's six voluntary-sector adventure playgrounds - Toffee Park, Lumpy Hill, Martin Luther King, Timbuktu, Crumbles Castle and Hayward. All those involved worked incredibly hard to ensure that there was a smooth transition and there was limited disruption in the play opportunities for Islington’s children. The trustees would like to welcome these new staff to IPA and take this opportunity to express our thanks for the dedication and commitment that they have shown. IPA is keen to share its expertise with others and staff have been involved in delivering a range of training courses to other play providers. IPA continues to enable and support partners to offer creative, inclusive, challenging and fun play opportunities for all children in Islington. A key part of this was the delivery of our ‘Finding Nature Through Play' project at Islington’s twelve adventure playgrounds. Paradise Park Children’s Centre continues to offer excellent, play-focused services for children under 5 years and their families to help them thrive and make the most of life's opportunities. Staff have worked hard to develop the use of outdoor space at the centre which contains an adventure playground specifically designed for under-fives. I want to take this opportunity to thank IPA’s board of trustees for their contribution during 2013 - 2014. The trustees would like to thank IPA’s staff and volunteers for their continued hard work. Your commitment to playfulness continues to create, improve, promote and preserve opportunities for the children of Islington to play. We would particularly like to acknowledge and recognise the leadership shown by senior managers and their skills and commitment over what has been a challenging time. Lorna Lewis Chair of Trustees

02 | Annual Impact Report 2014

Overarching aims for 2012 - 2014

Overarching aims for

2012 - 2014

Campaigning

for children's

right to play Securing and

protecting play

provision

Delivering play

and childcare

services

2

We were partners of the

review that saw continued

protection of the funding

for play due to the

recognition of the

importance of free play for

the children of Islington,

despite the council having

to reduce spending by

£127 million.

IPA persuaded the London

borough of Islington to

sign a deed of dedication

ensuring that all of the

adventure playground

land in Islington can never

be sold, built on or used

for anything except

children's play.

Did you know?

Islington only has 6% of its space

available for play compared to Camden,

with 18%, and Hackney, with 42%.

Whilst continuing to

deliver Paradise Park

Children’s Centre, IPA

delivered many projects

across all 12 adventure

playground sites, adding

value to and building on

existing services and

provision.

1 3


Overarching aims for 2012 - 2014


Supporting

adventure playgrounds

and other play

providers

IPA successfully bid to run

half of the adventure play

services in Islington and

continued to deliver

creative and innovative

play projects across the

borough, including cooking

healthy lunches with and

for the children, running a

play library of fantastic

resources and supporting

volunteers to get involved

with play.

We expanded our social

media impact using

Twitter, Facebook, blogs

and regular news emails.

We also published a book:

“Slow Down Building in

Progress: How to support

children to build dens and

tree houses in their play”

and presented at five

conferences, including

leading on the Risk It!

conference.

Sharing knowledge,

experience and good

practice in play

Our staff numbered

38 in 2012 and

increased to 80 by

2014.

This period has

seen IPA move into

the 'large' charity

category as defined

by NCVO.

In 2013 our

turnover increased

by over a third. 5 4

Outcomes for 2012—2015 Outcomes for 2012—2015

04| Annual Impact Report 2014

Outcomes for

2012 - 2014

In addition to the adventure playground and children's centre contracts, IPA has created and delivered a number of individual programs and

projects since 2012, which have brought in £250,000:

Greenspace projects Finding Nature Through Play Growing & Playing Healthy Holidays Play, Past, Present and in Perpetuity Social Action Fund Support to VCS groups Supporting Impact and Change Play Library Training for Lambeth Treehouse Project Other training, grants and projects

Islington Play Association’s presence online has seen steady

growth over the years. As of November 2014, the charity has

590+ followers on Twitter, 150+ likes on Facebook and

regularly exceeds 40,000 hits a month to its website.

Since Islington Play Association took over the adventure playgrounds

contract in April 2013, our playgrounds are open an average of five

additional hours per week in the term time each, and an average of 15

hours per week in the school holidays. That’s an additional 2000 hours of

adventure play per year. The attendance rate at our adventure

playgrounds has also increased by 26%.


Outcomes for 2012—2015


Adventure playgrounds are

part of their community,

allowing children to see

themselves within the wider

environment where they live.

Campaigning for children’s right to play


A little boy aged six attends our

adventure playground. He is a

selective mute which means he

does not talk to anyone who he

does not trust, he doesn’t even

talk to his teachers at the school.

After attending for some time he

slowly built up the confidence to

gesture to adults and other

children if he wanted something.

Over time he started to tap

adults and gesture them down to

his level where he will now

whisper in their ear. His voice is

actually really deep and

surprising to listen to.

By spending time at the playground

he developed confidence, self-

esteem and now feels that he can

trust the staff enough to talk to

them. This is a huge step for this

young person who now talks to a

handful of children on the

playground and to all of the staff

that work here.

Stacey Jeakins,

Playground Co-ordinator

Campaigning for

children’s right to play

Delivering play and childcare services



Campaigning for children’s right to play

One Saturday she glittered the

playground, she went around

doing fairy dust and even though

the other kids got quite fed up that

there was no glitter left. I can only

imagine she had a world of her

own that was fairy led.

She often makes art for people

with different mediums: she may

use bark or sand or as she did one

day, used old teabags and made

ageing maps. She leads on her own

projects. She may be a great artist

one day I like to believe, but in the

meantime needs this space to

express herself - where else will

she do what she does? She needs

to explore all the natural

opportunities that this space

provides and she is an amazing

child because she finds all the

amazing things herself.

Dawn Jennings,

Playground Co-ordinator

Child A has been attending one of

our adventure playgrounds for 3 - 4

years. She is really artistic and

really loves nature and animals,

and is our resident vet. She can be

quite cold sometimes, her parents

have alcohol issues and have in the

past come and shouted at staff

onsite.

When I first started here her back

could go up at any little thing. She

would create and storm off or just

not engage with you. She is still

quite feisty and sometimes a bit

cold for her age, but she has an

amazing artistic temperament that

she can express at the playground.

This is normally expressed in messy

play with mud, paint or clay, really

anything that she can get her

hands on.

06 | Impact repot


Securing and protecting play provision

Securing and protecting play provision


Securing and protecting

play provision In 2012 IPA set itself some ambitious goals which included the “specific aim to promote and secure legal protection for the land currently occupied by Islington’s adventure playgrounds, so that the future use of these sites for free, open-access adventure playgrounds will be assured”. After years of lobbying and campaigning IPA was successful in persuading Islington Council to protect the areas of land known as the adventure playgrounds in perpetuity through a deed of dedication signed with Fields in Trust, meaning that Islington Council have designated 12 sites as play spaces and QE11 Jubilee fields.

Islington brings in legal measure to protect adventure playgrounds: http://bit.ly/cypnow-ipa1

This example of the charity spearheading a successful campaign to protect play for the children of Islington was recognised by the Executive of the council writing to “Express its thanks to the IPA for (your) work on securing this land for adventure play”. IPA has already been approached by many areas across the country who are looking to do something similar and we hope that our good practice and example will be shared and replicated for children across the United Kingdom.

Only 12% of Islington homes have gardens.

http://bit.ly/cypnow-ipa1




Children are sometimes perceived in a similar way as natural spaces, as wild things which need to be controlled and managed, but just as natural habitats often need to be left to their own devises to flourish, so do children.

From 2010 till 2013 IPA delivered its Finding Nature through Play project which was funded by Natural England through Access to Nature, as part of the Big Lottery Fund's Changing Spaces programme. Over 3,000 children and their playworkers enhanced 11 adventure playgrounds and a public park by digging ponds, planting and making insect hotels, earth and turf sculptures, and clay ovens. By making these changes children have provided themselves and the children of the future with hundreds of loose parts to play with.

The most important outcome of this project is that thousands of children are now able to play freely in beautiful places that they have created themselves. The Finding Nature through Play project fed into Tim Gill’s 2011 Sowing the Seeds report which found that regular contact with the natural world: Boosted children’s motor

development skills Helped children to manage

their moods Improved children’s

concentration in class

Leon, aged 9, explained how he managed his emotions when he was at one of the Islington adventure playgrounds.

“Everyone’s always following me if I’m angry and asks me

about things. I can’t say then. I feel like hitting someone. I

want to be on my own until later. If I’m in the bit where the

trees are, at the back and no-one comes, that’s all I want.

I’ll talk to you after.”

Over 3,000 children took part in our

Finding Nature Through Play project.


Delivering Play and childcare services

Paradise Park Children’s Centre

Our reach to

low income

households for

2013 - 2014 is

92%, up from

77% in 2012 -

2013.

Paradise Park Children’s Centre offers a wide range of services for children and families in the Holloway area. IPA is proud to be part of the network of provision funded by Islington to support families living in challenging circumstances. It is very important to IPA that the resources in the borough for children are open to as many children as possible – not just those in nurseries or childcare but for those who come to free services. This is why we share our garden and our café with families and children in the area. The Children’s Centre currently has two areas identified as outstanding by Ofsted: 1. The quality of care, guidance and support offered to families,

including those in target groups: ‘Some families in the area face significant barriers and live with very complex problems. However, the response from the centre is sensitive, yet professional, and increases the life chances of families.’ 2. The extent to which equality is promoted and diversity celebrated, illegal or unlawful discrimination is tackled: ‘The promotion of equality at the centre is exemplary. Inclusive practice for all families, such as those with children who have additional needs, is strongly promoted and leads to improved outcomes for them. ‘ Paradise Park Children’s Centre is the first ever under fives provision to be awarded the Quality in Play Award in recognition of our excellent play focused approach across the whole service. Ofsted have said ‘Children are happy and safe at the setting and they enjoy warm

relationships with staff and each other.’ ’All practitioners spend their time appropriately engaging and playing

with the children.’ ‘The outside garden area is a well resourced and exciting learning

environment.’ Paradise Park has been praised for its use of Forest school methods by Ofsted and in the Healthy Children’s Centres assessment due to our trips to Barnsbury woods and our all weather approach onsite which sees the doors of the nursery always open allowing children free choice to go outside as they want to. The centre is part of IPA’s children and young peoples strategy. Bringing excellent play opportunities to all ages.

Supporting adventure playgrounds and other play providers


Supporting adventure

playgrounds and other play

providers A boy, 8 years old, diagnosed ADHD, extremely articulate and with a million ideas about who he could be each day. He often disappears into the woodland space as a warrior, sometimes with painted face and an axe to grind with another tribe, and always with some homemade weaponry. When I visit, I am shown the weapons made, told how they were constructed and given a glimpse of the imaginary world he co-creates with the environment, friends and playworkers at the adventure playground. I have witnessed enactments of dramatic slayings with triumphant displays of victory, with willing victims laying at his feet. This is a great example of how an adventure playground can benefit children. Together they are able to create moments which draw on all aspects of life, they are able to act out situations spontaneously, responding and developing unscripted stories which unfold before and between them, of which they are both in control and out of control. These moments require an ability to be highly responsive and adaptable to the ever changing, unpredictable circumstances that the adventure and actors within it present.

Their experiences are not driven by a wish to learn or accrue skills but by fun and freedom, and the adventure taking place right now, when they pose the question ‘what if’ e.g. I become a warrior or make a weapon, and by feelings, which are so enjoyable, that even in moments of being slain, make them want more and endeavour to create more possibilities to continue playing. An adventure playground differs greatly from other environments where children spend most of their time. Onsite children can rearrange the world, make connections with other children and adults in ways that could not be planned with structure or direction and in ways that benefit the individual, the other children, the culture of the playground and of course the community. To have a space which satisfies the imagination, energy and creativity of children also benefits families as this young boy’s nan often says,

‘’I don’t know what we’d do without Crumbles, he’d drive us up the wall.’’

In January 2013, 11.42% of 5-12 year

olds were using adventure

playgrounds, and a year later in

January 2014 it had risen to 12.65% -

that’s almost 500 extra children.

Supporting adventure playgrounds and other play providers


1/5

Prevention and early intervention are more

cost effective than cure.

38% of 10-11 year olds are

obese.

of the Islington population is under 20.

We have been picking up bread,

pastries and fresh organic vegetables

from local shops - Farm Direct and the

De Beauvoir Deli – and taking them to

the adventure playgrounds where

children have been cooking healthy

snacks and meals with them.

This work is just a small part of our

Healthy Holidays project which is

funded by the Department of Health’s

Health and Social Care Volunteering

Fund.

Millions of tons of food are wasted

every year by the UK food industry.

At the same time, there are so many

Londoners who cannot afford to feed

themselves and their families properly.

Islington Play Association has been

working with Plan Z Heroes whose

mission is to support and inspire food

businesses who are willing to donate

their surplus food to local charities.

Islington Play Association believes in two main areas for interventions:

Healthy eating including encouraging a connection with the natural, growing world

Physical activity through play

Sharing knowledge, experience and good practice


Sharing knowledge, experience and good practice in play

Over the last three years at IPA, one of my

roles has been as Quality in Play Mentor,

where I have sought to embed the Quality in

Play assurance scheme into what we do as

an organisation.

Developed by London Play and now

managed by Play England, it is a nationally

recognised quality assurance scheme that

demonstrates the play quality and robust

governance of a setting or organisation.

Rachel Mathers

Adventure Playground Manager

Boys and girls attendance rates on

our adventure playgrounds have

evened up, with more girls coming

to play.

In 2012 Paradise Park Children’s

Centre was the first ever under fives

provision to achieve Quality in Play

accreditation from Play England.

All Islington Play Association sites are registered with Ofsted.

Toffee Park, Timbuktu, Hayward

and Lumpy Hill Adventure

Playgrounds have all attained

Quality in Play accreditation.

Sharing knowledge, experience and good practice


Wendy Jeeves, Services Director

I began working for Islington Play Association in 2009 to deliver the Tree House Project, a

three year project funded by the Big Lottery. On adventure playgrounds, the project worked

to return ownership of the sites to the children through giving them the tools, materials and

the freedom to create their own play structures. Adventure playgrounds, throughout time

have been recognised by their child built structures but the tradition was disappearing in a

climate of parental fear, health and safety demands and playworkers’ fear of litigation.

Ironically the attempt to ensure the safety of children by removing all risks was having a

detrimental effect on children’s development of skills to ensure their own safety and on the

variety of experiences available to children. The Tree House Project worked closely with The

Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) who had a similar approach from their

own scheme ‘Learning about Safety by Experiencing Risk’ (LASER). The Tree House Project

challenged ideas about children’s capabilities, particular in the area of managing risk,

increased playworkers’ confidence in supporting building activity and worked throughout

the borough to change attitudes towards children’s play.

Whilst returning the tradition and practice of children building back to Adventure Play was a

key outcome of the project, increasing access to quality play experiences for all children was

equally important. This drive saw the project work in playgrounds, on estates, in parks and

in schools. The project worked with playworkers, tenants associations, parks staff and

teachers as well as over 2,000 children.

The project won an International Play Association ‘Right to Play’ Award and IPA published a

‘How to’ manual to encourage anyone interested in supporting children to use tools and

build dens and tree houses in their play.

This practice continues to be a focus for my work within the organisation as does improving

play practice on all sites in order to give children in Islington the broadest range of quality

play experiences and as such, the best chances for healthy and positive development.

In my current role as Services Director I have continued to support progress in changing

attitudes towards children experiencing and learning to assess risk in play. The Tree House

Project had a profound effect and contributed to a change in policy in Islington from Risk

Assessment to Risk Benefit Assessment for play activities.

Digital copy: Slow Down Building in Progress: How to support children to build dens and tree houses in their play http://bit.ly/slowbip

Financial information for 2013 - 2014

16 | Annual Impact Report 2014 | 17

Financial information for

2013 - 2014 Income: £1,484,201

Full accounts are available on request.

Auditor: Chapmans Associates Limited, 3 Coombe Road, London, NW10 0EB

Bankers: Barclays Bank, The Co-operative Bank & COIF Charities Deposit Fund

Expenditure: £1,438,149

Financial information for 2013 - 2014


IPA is grateful to the following funders for

their support in 2013-2014:

Big Lottery Fund - Natural England City Bridge Trust Department of Health Heritage Lottery Fund Islington Council Santander Social Action Fund 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust

Looking forward: 2014 - 2017

18 | Annual Impact Report



Annual Impact Report | 19

Structure, governance and management



Board of Trustees

Chair Lorna Lewis Treasurer Dominic Wollweber Vice Treasurer Ekaterina Aristovich Secretary Suzanne Murray

Trustees Jennifer Chan (left Dec 2013) Mick Conway Kelle Dittmar (left Dec 2013) Sarah Grand Olinka Greenhill

Juergen Heeg (joined Dec 2013) Chris Hignett (left Aug 2013) Melea Mapes (joined Mar 2014) Denise Ward

Head Office Chief Executive Officer Anita Grant Director of Operations Suzanne Murray Play Practice Manager / Services Director Wendy Jeeves Director of Finance Biniam Ghebreyesus

Nature Play Development Worker Lucy Benson Adventure Playground Development Worker Claudette Barnes (left Nov 2013)

HR Administrator Megan Harries (left Aug 2013) Administrator Parvin Hussain (joined Jan 2014)

Finance Worker Bruna Ibraj Play Development Worker / Adventure Playgrounds Manager Rachel Mathers Adventure Playground Development Worker Andrea Quaintmere (left Nov 2013)

Project Coordinator Quoc Truong (joined Mar 2014)

Paradise Park Children’s Centre Head of Centre Helen Richards Nursery Manager Zain Edoo (joined Jul 2013) Deputy Leader of Learning Fatima Bahmani

Family Support Worker Joy Ayeni Administrator Nicholas Carley (left Dec 2013) Centre Reception and Outreach Sarah Ghartey

Senior Family Support Worker Kemi Lawal Children’s Cook Virginia Moreno Catena Cafe Manager Lisa Wales

Annual Impact report | 19



Volunteers We would like to thank the many volunteers who make our work possible.

Playground Co-ordinators Dawn Jennings Kerry O’Connor Samadul Haque Stacey Jeakins Darren McLaughlin Ellen Vellacott

Deputy Playworkers Lydia Bailey Jonathan Biles (joined May 2013)

Maureen Bull Imogen Carter (left Mar 2013) Mark Challis Gilmar Cruz Silva

Vicky Cunningham Chelsea Freed Jordan James Frankie May Jack Matsell-Nish

Adventure Playgrounds, Nursery & Outreach Team

Sessional Playworkers Chris Achampong, Mandy Alloway, Margaret Gaskin, Gennet Tecle, Maya Gurung, Jake Hally-Milne

(joined Aug 2013), Fataha Khanom, Letisha Hunte, Heruth Iyasue, Anisa Lucey, Simone Mahoney, Sabah

Mohamed, Daniel Obadiaru, Juliana Obregon-Ramos, Rebecca Richards, Fabiana Righi, Maureen

Palmer (joined May 2013), Kitty Schuchard, Hannah Shannon, Cadi Wen St John, Lee Tucker, Jamie Ward.

Julita John Jermaine Payne Nazifa Rahman Emma Smith

Early Years Support Workers Shakherah Akhtar (left May 2013) Zarah Argel Anne Lahart-Tigrine

Amo Mahadi Patricia Okwan Cinzia Tassinari

Early Years Workers Pauline Atkinson Tracey Everitt Marie Forde Tracey Hollis

Islington Play Association

West Library Bridgeman Road London N1 1BD Telephone: 020 7607 9637 Email: [email protected]

Like us on Facebook - facebook.com/islingtonplay

Follow us on Twitter - @IslingtonPlay

Connect with us on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/islington-play-association

Subscribe to us on YouTube - youtube.com/islingtonplay

Paradise Park Children’s Centre

164 Mackenzie Road London N7 8SE

Telephone: 020 7697 7330

Fax: 0207 697 4429 Email: [email protected]

Registered Charity: 1086165

Company No. 3989283 registered in England & Wales

www.islingtonplay.org.uk

mailto:[email protected]

Islington Play Association Annual Impact Report 2014

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