There's no mistaking the national commitment to creating and improving children's play facilities. Last year, over £200m was invested in local play spaces for children and young people through the Big Lottery Fund's Children's Play Programme.

This year, following the launch of a new Children's Plan, the Government has announced a £225m investment in the development of new adventure playgrounds and innovative play sites with challenging equipment and natural landscapes.

For many years now, we have worked with local authorities up and down the country:

• Developing strategies for play and other open spaces 
• Engaging with children and young people through consultation
• Researching the habits and attitudes of children and young people
• Assessing the potential for adventure and extreme sports facilities
• Supporting bids and applications for funding.

KKP welcomes this recognised need for development and improvement to move away from the "two swings and a slide" mentality.

Strategic planning

Sunderland... West Lancashire... Derwentside... Wyre... Knowsley... St Ives... North Tyneside... Derby...to name but a few

A case in point - The play and urban games 10 year strategy and action plan we developed for Sunderland City Council - with flexibility to accommodate change, growth and development. Key recommendations from this were:

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

Sunderland is actively implementing these recommendations and now has a growing network of new and improved play provision including the new Silksworth skatepark.

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Engaging with children and young people

We are justifiably proud of our excellent reputation in this field, not only because the majority of our assignments incorporate consultation in some shape or form but also as we are regularly commissioned to deliver stand-alone community engagement assignments.

Drawing the right conclusions from, and achieving the right results as a result of, consultation is a key and under-rated skill - especially when dealing with children and young people. Involvement in consultation assists young people to learn about themselves and about exercising social responsibility.

We use a variety of methods adapted to suit children's ages. Wherever possible, we conduct this in environments that consultees are already comfortable. For example:

• Hard to reach groups - As part of recent consultation in North Lanarkshire, we attended education lessons at a local mosque. Doing this ensured that we gained a comprehensive understanding of the opinions and needs of young people that could not be reached using traditional routes.
• Formal and informal settings - in Wyre we ran group sessions in local primary and secondary schools to gauge the needs and issues of younger children
• Outreach - We shadowed Bolton youth workers on outreach projects talking to young people that use its open spaces and sports facilities (even if not always for the ‘right' reasons).
• Young people's forums - many local authorities now have established forums and councils to ensure that the voice of this generation is heard. Derwentside is recognised as Beacon Council for engaging with young people. This was apparent throughout our work developing a play strategy for the Council - in which young people actively participated at every stage of the process.

Researching the habits and attitudes of children and young people

We are the leading market research provider in the youth sport sector, widely recognised, in particular, for our innovative census ‘Strata' surveys devised to understand and measure the participation of children and young people in sport, arts and cultural activity.

Complementing Government data such as ‘Active People' and the PESSCL school sport surveys', the Strata Survey is built upon one of the country's most comprehensive datasets. In addition to the proven value of the data itself, it has the added benefit of enabling clients to compare their results with the responses of 200,000 young people in the UK.

Assessing the potential for adventure and extreme sports facilities

One of the UK's leading feasibility study specialists, especially in regeneration areas and projects that involve working with young people, our extensive portfolio includes:

• Modelling a series of innovative recreational uses to breathe life into a former colliery site in Sheffield. 
• Conducting a feasibility study to transform a disused warehouse into an "extreme sports centre" to regenerate the ABCD New Deal area of Wolverhampton.
• Assessing the potential for an indoor youth park in Bradford, including skate-park, climbing wall and high ropes.

Supporting bids and applications for funding

Our up to the minute expertise in this area is evidenced by our 100% record in BIG play funding applications. All three local authorities we supported in applications for funding from the Big Lottery Fund's Children's Play Programme were successful - attracting over £1m of funding to deliver the play strategies that we assisted them to develop.

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Adventure...

... is the word on everyone's lips today - whether in the context of the 5-hour offer, developing thought-provoking strategies or practical delivery of pioneering play. Innovation, the willingness to challenge the status quo and the pursuit of ground-breaking solutions is at the heart of everything we do at KKP.