Playwork skills council loses third of its funding

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has slashed the budget of the organisation responsible for driving through workforce reforms in the play sector by more than a third.

SkillsActive, the sector skills council for leisure and learning, relies on an annual grant of £619,000 from the DCSF. The cash is used to support SkillsActive's playwork unit, which leads the development of playwork education and training for all those working with children.

But the grant has been unexpectedly cut to £400,000 for the next two years.

Paul Bonel, director of the SkillsActive playwork unit, said: "We're delivering a large programme of work for the government, upskilling the play workforce, so it's a blow to have our grant cut by 35 per cent."

He added that he was concerned about the future role of SkillsActive once its funding ends in two years' time.

The recent 2020 Children and Young People's Workforce Strategy mooted the possibility of reducing the number of skills councils.

Part of the playwork unit's remit is to help the government achieve its target of 4,000 playworkers achieving the equivalent of an A-level in playwork by 2011.

A spokeswoman for the DCSF said: "We receive bids for a large number of organisations. There is no guarantee that organisations successful in previous years will be awarded funding again."

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