Play development and capacity building in Gleadless Valley

One of the core aims of Sheffield Play Partnership is to turn the tide on the loss of community play provision that we’ve seen through cuts, austerity and the pandemic – leaving many communities across Sheffield without access to out of school opportunities, particularly for 5-10 year olds.

Sheffield Play Partnership has been pro-actively working in Gleadless Valley since Spring 2024, to see how we can bring our 45+ years of experience of running sustainable community play projects to support an under served area.

Our aim is to build genuine capacity in the local community and offer ongoing support. We work with local partners to identify barriers to increased play opportunities for children and young people, actively participating in problem solving to move towards concrete improvements for children.

In Gleadless Valley this has involved supporting a local resident keen to provide more for local children, providing training, networking, 1:1 development support and drawing on our knowledge of all things play provision.

This way of working doesn’t always create the fastest results, but it embeds community ownership and the up-skilling of local people passionate about delivering for their communities. Working in this way ensures that we are starting with the community’s expertise at the centre. No one else will have such a clear idea of what the issues facing families are, and what is likely to make the most positive impact.

We want to say a massive thanks to all those participating in the Gleadless Valley Play Partnership meetings and to Valley Youth Hub who are working hard to build provision for their community.

Dr Christina Tatham from University of Sheffield has been following the work on Gleadless Valley and has written a report on Sheffield Play Partnership’s work and impact so far. You can read the full report here. 

If you are interested in finding out more about our Local Area Play Development work, get in touch.