In 2003, Sunderland City Council faced a number of challenges with its play service, including changing demographics, increasing budgetary pressures and a network of play facilities of diminishing quality and relevance to young people in the City. KKP was charged with tackling these challenges and to develop a 10 year strategy and action plan with flexibility to accommodate change, growth and development.

To identify the value of play provision, KKP developed a scoring mechanism to assess current provision and future development proposals in the context of:

• Views of young people and parents/guardians of young people about needs/aspirations.
• The extent to which current provision catered for these needs and aspirations.
• Relevance and importance of provision to local communities.
• The investment required to provide a network of accessible, quality facilities.
• Management and governance arrangements.
• The suitability of sites in relation to accessibility, visibility, safety etc.

The scoring and GIS mapping of sites allowed KKP and the City to address key issues including rationalisation of provision, developing higher quality facilities and using play site hierarchies to plan provision for urban games.

" Working closely with KKP, Sunderland City Council has formulated a clear direction for play in the City. We are particularly pleased with the clear action plan now adopted by our play team. KKP clearly engaged with young people through their extensive consultation. It is pleasing to witness the increase in play activity following implementation of the Strategy." Alison O'Neill, Sunderland City Council.

As well as a phased programme of new provision and enhancement to play areas, the strategy also recommended:

• Development of a play forum and continued involvement of the Youth Parliament.
• Investigation into safer routes to parks and play areas.
• Additional publicity of play provision to increase awareness.
• Agreement to review the action plans annually and review strategy every three years.

Sunderland City Council is now actively implementing the strategy recommendations and as a result has a growing network of new and improved play provision. This includes the recently opened skate park in Silksworth.