Playing out on estates

Traffic is not the only barrier to children playing out. Often housing estates have plenty of car-free space but other things stop children from using it…

Barriers to playing out on estates

Unlike on most city streets, children living in high rise estates often have car-free space right on their doorstep. Low-rise estates may have very quiet streets, driveways or small patches of grass. But despite this, children living on estates are sometimes not able to play out as much as they would like to – or at all.

In our work with tower-block communities in Bristol, we found there were many reasons for this, including complaints from neighbours, parental concerns about safety, space being used for other things (e.g. building site, waste area) and a general sense that the space is not “theirs” to play in.

“No Ball Games” signs and play bans

“No Ball Games” signs are also still everywhere on housing estates, sending a message to children that they are not welcome in the space on their doorstep. We also regularly hear from parents where a housing provider, landlord or council has completely banned children from playing out on their own estate. If this is a problem you are facing, we can help. Adapt this template letter for responding to a ‘play ban’, or use this open letter from Playing Out to housing providers. See our page here for more info on how housing providers can support children to play out.

A ‘playing out’ model for high rise estates

In 2015-16 we worked with residents in Bristol tower blocks to see if a version of the play street model could help change things for children. We found that many of the features of the street-based model apply in this setting, even without closing a road. For example:

• Community-led (with support as needed)
• A set time to play out together
• Using existing doorstep space
• Making the space safe
• Child-led free play
• Simple, low-cost, sustainable

Positive outcomes

• Children are active, have fun & make friends
• Bringing neighbours together; breaking down barriers
• Building active citizenship
• Making children and play visible and changing attitudes

While there have been some barriers to sessions becoming completely resident-led, there are signs that more informal, ad-hoc playing out is happening as a result of the sessions and the increased community cohesion. We also helped residents to make some low-cost, ‘DIY’ changes to their space, to make it feel more welcoming and used.

You can read the full report on this project here.

If you want to help children to play out on estates, see our community development toolkit and read more here.

More information

Watch Angela talk about her experience of enabling outdoor play on Bristol estates:

Also check out this video on the Find Your Village project in Bristol from the Brigstowe Institute:

Next steps…

Based on learning from this project, we created guidance for residents and community workers supporting others to do play streets, and a downloadable toolkit for people working to support children and families in areas facing greater disadvantage. The model can quite easily be adapted for estates, following the four simple steps to playing out – and missing out the road closure application if it’s not needed!  We’d love to hear how you get on.

We’ve worked with housing providers to encourage them to develop pro-play policies and remove No Ball Games signs.