ohh that's a tricky worded one, it can be taken in a few ways.
Playwork is an emerging professional field with an increasingly recognised and qualified workforce. Playworkers train to do their jobs. Playwork creates opportunities and places where children and young people can play freely and with confidence. Places where they can encounter a wide range of opportunities and possibilities – where the adults involved understand the nature and importance of all aspects of children’s play and work to support it. A common misconception is that playworkers play with children. In reality playworkers enable children to extend their own play and they enhance the play space so that it is a rich play environment. Playworkers have a key role in protecting spaces where children play so that children, young people and their parents have confidence they can play there. Playworkers ensure that the play space is inclusive – supporting all children to make the most of the opportunities available in their own way. Sometimes this means working with individual who may have been excluded from using other services. Playworkers see children and young people as competent individuals. They understand the need for children to encounter and create uncertainty and challenge as part of their play. Playworkers neither direct nor organise the play, they are trained to judge when or whether to intervene.
Best Play (2000) suggests two key tasks of playworkers:
•Enrichment of play
•Management of risk
‘The playworkers core function is to create an environment which will stimulate children’s play and maximise their opportunities for a wide range of play experiences. A skilled and experienced playworker is capable of enriching the child’s play experience both in terms of the design and resources of the physical environment and in terms of the attitudes and culture fostered within the setting.’
A playworker will bring new dimensions to the play environment, act as a resource for the children and provide some of the stimulus for new experiences. Playworkers make themselves available to respond to the needs or the invitation of the child. Playworkers operate under the ethos of the Playwork Principles and these help in explaining the role of the playworker.
- See more at:
http://www.devon.gov.uk/index/childr....S5fGFbK8.dpuf
hope this helps, taken from devon county council's website
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