Play strategy for Scotland: our action plan

Ministerial Foreword

Play, as we know, is an essential part of a healthy, happy childhood, taking place within the home from birth, through formal and informal learning, and in community settings through the use of public spaces and services.

Aileen Campbell MSP
Minister for Children and Young People

Play allows children to experience fun, joy and laughter in a way that is important to them. In June 2013, the Scottish Government launched Scotland's first national Play Strategy. This Strategy was built on the views of children and young people, parents and carers, the play sector and others involved in children's wellbeing.

The Play Strategy articulates the critical importance of play, as well as our obligation to protect our children's ability to play. If we want Scotland to be the best place in the world to grow up, then Scotland as a nation must embrace play as a life-enhancing daily experience for all our children and young people; in their homes, nurseries, schools and communities. But the strategy goes further than that. It also highlights that play is not just crucial to the wellbeing of each child, it is essential to the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of Scotland as a whole.

The Play Strategy Action Plan has been informed by children and young people and developed by a working group of key players within the play sector, who have been working hard to ensure there are clear, measurable and deliverable actions that will take us forward in the journey towards realising the vision that we have set out. I would like to thank them for the hard work and commitment they have brought to the development of this Action Plan.

This Government believes that Scotland's people are its greatest asset. It's by harnessing the hard work, creativity and talents that lie in all of our communities that we will deliver the fairer and more empowered Scotland we want to see. Working together on these identified priorities will be what makes the difference.