Scottish Parents' Survey 2021 - children and young people's play: results

1. Introduction

This report presents the findings on children’s play from a survey of parents in Scotland in 2021. Questions covered their children’s experiences of play during the past year, what has supported play, and what might encourage children and their parents to play more in the future.

Policy background

The 2013 Play strategy for Scotland: our action plan sets out a vision for a nation which values play as a life-enhancing daily experience for all our children and young people – in homes, nurseries, schools and communities. The progress review of the play strategy in 2021 highlighted the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s play experiences. The Scottish Government is working with partners across key sectors to take forward a number of commitments, including a £60 million investment in renewing play parks across Scotland to ensure that all children have access to quality play in their community. The voices of children and young people and their families are key to help understand what more can be done to fulfil all children’s right to play.

Methods

The Scottish Parents’ survey is a telephone omnibus survey run by Ipsos MORI Scotland. It is a representative survey of parents of children aged 0-17 in Scotland, weighted by age of the parent, working status, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)^[1] classification and the age of the child.^[2] The survey took place between 1 November and 2 December 2021 and 1,004 parents responded. It asked parents five closed questions on the topic of their children’s play.

Socio-demographic variables included in the survey were: age of selected child^[3]; respondent age, gender, working status and qualification; household type and income; number of children in the household; rurality; and SIMD. Due to small sample sizes within demographic sub-samples, it is not possible to report all breakdowns. This report therefore only reports demographic findings that are both meaningful and statistically significant at the 5% level. Additionally, numbers may differ between figures and text due to rounding.

Analysis and reporting was undertaken by the Scottish Government, Children and Families Analysis Unit.