Room to Play

Room to Play is a specialist outreach project that breaks down the barriers to inclusion.  It is well documented that the reach of statutory early years services (such as Sure Start) is problematic, and there is evidence that their use is in inverse relation to need, with those who are most vulnerable least likely to take up offers of support.  Typically, those who do not participate are younger, less well educated and in less stable relationships – the group often referred to as ‘hard to reach’.  Consequently, developing services that are more in sympathy with the needs of isolated families has become the primary focus of policy and a challenge for providers.

Room to Play seeks to address this need; it is a drop-in style provision which aims not only to welcome all parents and carers, but also to extend their existing parenting practices.  It is open to everyone, but it is intended to be of particular value to families with children whose life chances may be compromised by the circumstances in which they live and whose families do not already access available services.

The initiative is based in a shop unit in a busy community shopping centre at the heart of one of the most deprived areas of an otherwise prosperous city.  By making an offer of a ‘place to pop in to’ in a neutral venue, and with the ability of the staff to build strong non-judgemental relationships, the programme is accessible to an unusually wide-range of families, including the hard-to-reach.  

The Sutton Trust has supported the development of Room to Play, with partner funders, over a number of years.  Following a positive evaluation by Kathy Sylva and her team at the University of Oxford, the Trust is now supporting the dissemination of the model and lessons learnt to a number of disadvantaged communities.