My initiative is designed for and delivered in London

Yes

I am 18 years of age or above, by the application deadline.

Yes

My organisation is a registered UK entity and has a London-based address.

Yes

My organisation is a non-profit (e.g. school, university, or local authority) — not a for-profit, which can only join as a partner.

Yes

If there is a for-profit organisation as a partner in my initiative, they work on a cost-recovery basis only.

Yes

My solution is implemented at scale, or if not, I have a clear business plan, a minimum viable solution (prototype, pilot, or proof of concept), evidence of access to a lease for the space you are leveraging, and evidence of work or impact in London within your coalition.

Yes

I am aware that, if I am submitting more than one application to a Challenge run by Ashoka and Go! London, only one of them is able to progress through the stages.

Yes

Are you an employee (and their children and grandchildren) of Ashoka or any of its respective affiliates and participating advertising and promotion agencies?

No

I have read and accepted the Challenge Terms & Conditions.

Yes

First Name

Fiona

Last Name

Sutherland

Pronouns

She/Her

I would like to receive notifications and updates about Go London!, Ashoka, Ashoka Changemakers, and other Ashoka opportunities.

1

Are you an Ashoka Fellow?

No

Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?

No

If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.

Lead Organisation Name

London Play

Year that you started/ registered your organisation

1998

Initiative Title

Active Doorsteps, Playful Places (previously People Powered Playces)

My initiative is designed for and delivered in London

1

Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles

londonplay.org.uk; https://www.instagram.com/london_play/; https://www.facebook.com/londonplay.charity; https://x.com/londonplay; https://www.linkedin.com/company/london-play/

Initiative Stage

Idea (You have a solid concept and are hoping to get started in the future)

Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?

Children & Youth

Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence

Active Doorsteps: Playful Places trains and pays local young people as Play Ambassadors to transform underused communal spaces on their estates into vibrant regular active play zones, unlocking everyday physical activity for sedentary children and embedding permanent playwork capacity within local grassroots youth organisations.

The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve and who will benefit the most from your solution? How close are you to the problem and/or community impacted?

Unstructured play is the foundation of all movement, and the most accessible gateway to physical activity during childhood. It requires no special equipment and can happen anywhere. Doorstep play should be a daily norm. Yet across housing estates in Barking and Dagenham (LBBD), communal outdoor spaces are underused, neglected and functionally locked out; parental anxieties around safety, environmental neglect, and anti-social behaviour keep children indoors. London Play’s recent Jelly Sports project running playful pop-ups in Barking Town Centre highlighted acute play deprivation. Community consultations on Harts Lane and Thamesview estates, engaging 38 adults & 22 children confirmed this: 55% of residents reported children can't play outside as much as they want – rising to 66% for families with school-age children. In focus groups teenagers echoed this, noting they stay indoors because parents fear street violence. Fly-tipping blocks movement, leading to sedentary habits. One young resident said: " You can't ride your bike on the street if there's mattresses in your way." LBBD has the highest proportion of under-16s in England and Wales (25%), yet child health inequalities are acute: 28% of Year 6 children are obese, and the population is among the least physically active in London. Despite this there are few systems and services that promote or support play: no staffed adventure playgrounds, no play street policy, and risk-averse housing management. Traditional sports provision can exclude non-sporty or low-confidence children. Those most in need of intervention are this "hidden," sedentary demographic. What is missing is a trusted human presence to reclaim underused spaces, break the cycle of fear, and give parents the confidence to let children out to play.

Your approach: How are you/ will you addressing the problem outlined above? How does your solution unlock or reimagine access to spaces for sport and physical activity? What role do landowners, local authorities, or other decision-making stakeholders play in your approach? We'd love to know about the origin of your idea, and what was your "aha" moment" that led you to take action?

Active Doorsteps: Playful Places (ADPP) addresses estate safety fears by employing 12 local young people (aged 16–24) as Play Ambassadors to establish regular outdoor play sessions on two play-deprived LBBD estates. Drawing on their own experience of growing up on local estates, they provide the trusted, consistent presence needed to reduce safety anxieties and change perceptions of underused spaces. Because play needs no special equipment and can happen anywhere, doorstep play should be a daily norm. Our approach unlocks everyday spaces for joy and movement. Our "aha" moment was recognising the potential of combining staffed adventure playground and play street approaches in a borough with neither. By bringing London Play’s street and estate activation expertise together with Hackney Play Association's (HPA) playwork practice, we take a highly skilled framework beyond playground fences and into LBBD estates. Sessions transform neglected spaces into zero-pressure play environments using mobile kits of street play equipment, tactile resources and loose parts. The invitation to "just fun" unlocks movement for non-sporty and low-confidence children often excluded by competitive sports. Because the council owns and manages nearly three-quarters of the borough's social housing, our route to permission is relatively straightforward. Through our Jelly Sports work, we already have the Council Leader's informal support for trialling play street approaches on low-rise estates, making it easier to navigate risk frameworks, clear space and secure on-site storage. As the paid youth cohort gradually steps back, resident parents and carers, having experienced the transformation firsthand will be equipped and inspired to take lasting ownership of a revived culture of doorstep play.

Collaboration with young people and the community: In what ways does your initiative engage young people and community members closest to the problem? What role do they play in building the solution you deliver?

Young people are paid co-designers and operational leaders of this solution, valued as the primary experts on estate dynamics. During recent development workshops, 24 local youth shared their spatial insights, community connections and creative ideas that shaped how sessions will run. We will recruit 12 Play Ambassadors (six per estate), ensuring a consistent frontline team of 3–4 young people per session while allowing flexibility around exams, family and other commitments. Twelve local young people have already expressed interest following enthusiastic focus group sessions. Ambassadors enter a structured paid development pathway, moving from a training allowance during HPA's PlayWay modules and adventure playground placements to the full London Living Wage when planning and leading doorstep sessions. Our grassroots youth consortium partners identify and recruit these leaders through trusted local relationships, while London Play acts as employer and manages HR. Our co-design sessions revealed a strong appetite for leadership. One participant captured this perfectly: "Not being treated like you're an assistant… so treated more like an equal. When you give ideas, the ideas actually execute." The model also funds grassroots partners' youth workers to support the teenagers, provide safeguarding and receive on-the-job playwork mentoring, creating a lasting borough legacy of skilled local youth workers and young leaders able to champion doorstep play beyond the funded project and access future paid opportunities with London Play and partner organisations.

Potential for/Evidence of Impact: How do you imagine your initiative will make a difference in unlocking spaces for and access to physical activity and sport so far? If you have already implemented it, what difference have you made so far? What is the impact your initiative has had , and or what impact do you envision having in the future?

ADPP shows impact through paired quantitative and qualitative change. UK play street research shows 3–5x increases in moderate-to-high physical activity during sessions. Embedding doorstep play on estates experiencing spatial inequality extends these benefits to children excluded from structured sport. We deliver a seasonally responsive model beginning in October. The first five months (Oct–Feb) focus on recruitment, PlayWay training, adventure playground placements, co-design with young people, and indoor/sheltered pilot activity in community spaces. This builds trust, tests approaches, and establishes relationships ahead of rollout. From March, regular doorstep play sessions begin. Initial sessions engage 10–15 children per estate, rising to 50–60 as trust grows. Over time, children re-form peer networks, including informal “knocking” for friends between sessions. Parents also participate informally, strengthening neighbourly connections. Short-term outputs (Oct–Feb): 12 trained Play Ambassadors; three supported youth partner groups; co-design and pilot activity; delivery infrastructure. Delivery outputs (Mar–): 72 two-hour doorstep play sessions (36 per estate), delivered weekly in summer/reduced in winter, reaching between 10–60 children per session alongside parental participation. Envisioned outcomes: Increased physical activity and confidence, reduced isolation, improved perceptions of safety, and renewed use of shared outdoor space. Long-term systemic change: ADPP offers a scalable model of resident-led “eyes on the street” through structured playwork presence, providing evidence to shift systems away from restrictive approaches to space towards youth-led activation, environmental care and trusted community presence as drivers of safer more active estates.

Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?

Active Doorsteps: Playful Places (ADPP) is innovative in three core ways: • Methodological fusion of two proven but separate systems: We combine London Play’s street and estate activation expertise with Hackney Play Association’s adventure playground playwork practice into a single mobile delivery model. This transfers high-quality playwork practice beyond fixed playgrounds into estates with no staffed adventure playground provision, creating a new hybrid model of play delivery in high-density housing environments. • Disguising physical activity as play: ADPP treats child-led, unstructured play as the ultimate hook for movement. By removing competition, instruction and performance pressure, we transform physical activity from something children are directed towards into something they choose organically, widening participation among those excluded by traditional sport. • A resident-led playwork workforce model: We train and pay local young people as Play Ambassadors, embedding professional playwork practice within the community itself - and in particular young people with recent lived experience of barriers to play on these very estates. Working alongside experienced playworkers and youth practitioners, they develop the skills to safely facilitate child-led, active, and creative play in real estate environments. This creates a consistent, trusted presence while building long-term local capacity rather than relying on external delivery or short-term volunteering. Together, this model shifts not just what happens in public space, but who controls and activates it. Over time, repeated doorstep sessions normalise children’s independent outdoor play, rebuild neighbour-to-neighbour trust, and shift expectations of how estate space can and should be used.

Viability and Scalability: How are you setting your initiative up for success, and what is your plan to ensure operational sustainability of your solution and its impact? What are your ideas for scaling your initiative to the next level?

Our approach to sustainability is based on investing in local people, on-site resources and youth leadership rather than dependency on external delivery. Financial model and youth workforce development: A core feature of viability is our dual-rate payment framework for Play Ambassadors. Young people move from a training allowance during HPA’s training and adventure playground placements to the full London Living Wage during live delivery. This progression builds accountability, reduces dropout and positions young people as professional partners rather than short-term volunteers, ensuring consistent delivery across the project lifecycle. Local workforce capacity building: Rather than retraining youth workers into specialist playworkers, we use a shadowing model where local youth workers learn alongside London Play staff and Play Ambassadors on sessions. This builds practical understanding of playwork and risk-benefit approaches, embedding play-permissive practice within existing youth provision and strengthening long-term local ownership. Low-cost, place-based infrastructure: We avoid capital-heavy infrastructure by using mobile loose-parts kits and lightweight equipment stored directly on estates through partnership with housing providers. As LBBD Council is the primary landlord in target areas, we can secure on-site storage and embed resources locally. This keeps ongoing costs low and ensures equipment remains community-owned and accessible. Scaling approach: The first two estates act as a pilot to refine the model. Experienced Play Ambassadors will then act as peer mentors to support delivery on new estates. By the end of the 18-month cycle, we will have a tested model ready for commissioning or investment, enabling rollout to additional estates.

Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.

Our updated approach is an intelligence-led evolution of our stage one proposal. Rather than London Play working externally with young people in isolation, we now embed delivery within existing grassroots youth organisations to ensure trusted local presence and long-term sustainability. Hackney Play Association’s (HPA) role is refined to specialist training and adventure playground placements. 1. London Play (Lead partner & accountable body) London Play holds overall responsibility for governance, safeguarding, finance and reporting. We act as legal employer for the Play Ambassadors, managing HR, payroll and contracts in line with safeguarding and employment standards. The Project Manager oversees delivery, coordination and reporting, maintains relationships with housing providers, and uses learning to influence play-friendly policy. The Sessional Lead Playworker delivers frontline sessions and provides structured mentoring, co-planning and reflective debriefs for Play Ambassadors, ensuring safe, consistent practice on the ground. 2. Grassroots youth consortium (Future MOLDS, BDYD, JDS) Local partners act as trusted community anchors, rooted in the estates where delivery takes place. They lead recruitment, family engagement and liaison with residents, helping ensure the programme is locally legitimate rather than externally imposed. Staff provide on-site support during sessions, using their established relationships to navigate estate dynamics, reassure families, and strengthen safeguarding oversight in real time. Through shadowing delivery, youth providers gain a practical understanding of playwork and how it differs from more structured youth work practice. embedding these principles within ongoing estate-based youth provision. 3. Hackney Play Association (Training partner) HPA delivers the accredited PlayWay training programme and provides adventure playground placements for Play Ambassadors, ensuring high-quality playwork training and supervision during placement hours. 4. Play Ambassadors (local young people aged 16–24) The frontline delivery workforce. They co-design and lead doorstep play sessions, support outreach with families, and help develop and use mobile play kits, working alongside playworkers and youth staff to deliver sessions on their estates.

Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.

Phase 1: Mobilisation, co-design & training (Months 1–5) We formalise SLAs with Hackney Play Association and grassroots youth consortium partners, and recruit Play Ambassadors through estate-based networks. Ambassadors complete PlayWay training and adventure playground placements. Alongside this, we run co-design sessions with young people and residents to shape delivery and select mobile play kits and infrastructure. We also secure agreements with LBBD housing teams to enable estate access and on-site storage. Phase 2: Soft launch (Month 6 – March) We begin initial doorstep play sessions on Harts Lane and Thamesview estates. Early sessions establish routines, test delivery approaches, and build trust with small cohorts of children and families. Phase 3: Full delivery (Months 7–12) Weekly doorstep play sessions scale up across both estates, delivered by Play Ambassadors alongside consortium youth workers and London Play. Participation increases as informal “knocking” behaviours and parental engagement develop, embedding regular community use of outdoor space. Phase 4: Transition & scaling (Months 13–18) Delivery gradually shifts to local leadership, with reduced London Play input and increased autonomy for trained Play Ambassadors and youth workers. Using evaluation data and tested infrastructure, the model is prepared for expansion to 2–3 additional estates. Findings are shared with LBBD Council to support wider adoption of a Play Street approach.

Capacity-Building Participation and Support Funding: If you were to make it as a finalist, you will be required to participate in an 8-week capacity building programme. If funding/ cost is a barrier to your participation, we may be able to offer up to 10,000 GBP of grant money available to support you. Please break down below, if it is the case, what costs you would incur and you would need covered. (Please note that there are restrictions on how the grant money may be used; please refer to the T&Cs for further details.

NOTE: This section reflects the completed development phase with the estimated £5,900 budget. London Play staff time was provided in-kind. Some activities were adapted in response to learning and available capacity so not all budget lines were fully utilised.

• Youth co-production & local engagement (£2,000 + £750 consultancy support): London Play partnered with three grassroots youth organisations (Future MOLDS, BDYD and JD) to recruit young people for three co-production workshops. Some 26 young people (aged 14–24, with most 16-17) took part, representing Upney, Barking and Thamesview and a diverse mix of housing types and backgrounds. Workshops were professionally facilitated using informal qualitative methods, with shopping vouchers and shared pizza recognising participants' time and encouraging open discussion. Findings directly shaped the Play Ambassador model and consortium delivery approach.
• Playful consultation & concept testing (£1,400 budget line – partly utilised): Two days of light-touch pop-up consultation around the Harts Lane and Thamesview estates used pavement chalk, hopscotch, beach balls and simple play prompts to engage families. Chalk giveaways prompted children in Harts Lane to immediately began collaborating on chalk drawings and games on paved areas, providing instant evidence of how low-cost, child-led play simply and successfully activates shared communal space.
• Specialist support & programme participation (£1,750): Remaining budget funded freelance playworkers, learning synthesis, local materials and travel associated with the capacity-building programme and development phase.

Now that you've explored what it truly means to put young people at the centre, how are you designing your initiative so that young people are genuine co-leaders and co-creators of the initiative?

Honest Starting Point: London Play’s usual models typically rely on adult intermediaries – professional playworkers, parent volunteers on play streets, or TRAs on housing estates – to develop and deliver initiatives. Active Doorsteps represents a deliberate shift away from this, positioning estate-resident young people as primary operational leads. We recognise that launching sustained estate-based delivery is labour-intensive, and that busy local families are not always able to provide the time required for ongoing coordination. By contrast, teenagers bring recent lived experience of the barriers we are trying to address and are best placed to shape solutions in real time. Paying young people to lead delivery is therefore a deliberate structural decision to create ownership, momentum and continuity from the outset. Co-creation in practice: To move beyond consultation, we embed mechanisms that transfer genuine operational control to the 12 Play Ambassadors: • Financial and material decision-making: In Phase 1, Play Ambassadors co-design and allocate the procurement of mobile loose-parts kits. Rather than receiving predefined equipment, they run workshops with local children to determine what is purchased and how it will be used on their estates. • Autonomy to adapt delivery: Ambassadors are not following a fixed script. They have the authority to adapt sessions in real time – changing layouts, activities or materials in response to how children are engaging, within a playwork risk-benefit framework. • Paid leadership role: A significant proportion of the delivery budget is allocated to youth wages through a structured progression model. This formal employment shifts their role from participants or volunteers to contracted co-leaders of the project. • Lived experience shaping design: Design decisions are grounded in the cohort’s own experience of estate life. As one participant expressed during development sessions, the emphasis was on “everyone spending quality time together just having fun,” which directly informed the non-competitive, child-led nature of delivery. Team shift and adult role: For the delivery team, this requires a conscious move towards facilitation rather than control. The Lead Playworker and consortium youth workers adopt a “reflective step-back” approach, using debriefs to support rather than direct decision-making. Over time, responsibility for problem-solving, risk-benefit judgement, and session adaptation is progressively transferred to the youth cohort.

What partnerships and collaborations are most critical to delivering and sustaining your initiative and how are you building/ plan to build them?

Active Doorsteps is built on a small number of interdependent partnerships, each playing a distinct role in delivering trusted, sustainable doorstep play within LBBD estates. 1. Grassroots youth consortium (Future MOLDS, BDYD, and JDS) - community trust and delivery anchor These organisations are central to delivery because they already hold trusted relationships on the estates where the work takes place. They lead local recruitment of Play Ambassadors, support family engagement, and provide on-site presence during sessions. Rather than acting as external contractors, they are treated as equal delivery partners. We actively fund their youth workers’ time to participate in training and shadow delivery, ensuring playwork principles are embedded into their ongoing estate-based youth provision. 2. Hackney Play Association (HPA) – specialist training & workforce development HPA provides the specialist playwork infrastructure that underpins the model. Through a formal SLA, they deliver the accredited PlayWay training and host structured adventure playground placements for Play Ambassadors. This ensures a consistent, high-quality pathway into professional playwork practice, grounded in real play environments. 3. London Play – lead accountable body & system connector London Play holds overall responsibility for governance, safeguarding, finance, HR, and reporting, and acts as the legal employer for the Play Ambassadors. We also deliver directly on the ground: our Sessional Lead Playworker co-delivers doorstep play sessions alongside Play Ambassadors and consortium youth workers, providing live modelling of playwork practice, structured mentoring, co-planning, and reflective debriefs to support skills development. Our operating model is “deliver to influence”: we use frontline delivery not only to run sessions, but to generate evidence, build trusted relationships, and create the conditions for wider system change. Insights from delivery are used to influence housing providers and LBBD Council, strengthening the case for borough-wide adoption of play-friendly approaches. Alongside this, we act as the system connector, linking grassroots delivery partners with LBBD Council and local housing providers to secure estate access, align with housing processes, and support longer-term adoption of doorstep play approaches. 4. Shared structure around a common goal All partners are aligned through formal Service Level Agreements and a shared objective: increasing safe, regular access to doorstep play on estates experiencing spatial inequality. Funding flows directly into frontline delivery, training, and local capacity rather than intermediary overheads. This creates a model where responsibility is distributed but accountability is clearly held by London Play. 5. Sustainability and systems change Sustainability is built through capability transfer. Youth workers gain practical exposure to playwork, Play Ambassadors develop into peer leaders, and grassroots organisations embed play principles into their ongoing provision. Over time, London Play’s role shifts from delivery to convening and advocacy, supporting a borough-wide shift towards resident-led, play-enabled public space.

What are you measuring, how are you measuring it, and what does the data tell you so far (quantitative and qualitative)?

We use a mixed-method approach combining simple quantitative tracking with lightweight qualitative insight collection. We operate a “Teens Talk, Adults Track” model, where Play Ambassadors generate rich, real-time insight through weekly reflective conversations and session debriefs. The Project Manager then translates these into structured qualitative data, ensuring young people are not burdened with administrative tasks while their lived experience directly shapes evaluation. • Baseline (Month 1–2): Short parent surveys and observational mapping of estate spaces to establish starting levels of outdoor play, perceived safety, and participation in organised activity. • Ongoing tracking (Months 2–18): Weekly session logs capture attendance, types of play observed, and behavioural shifts. These are combined with Play Ambassador debriefs to record changes in confidence, peer interaction, and estate use patterns. • Spatial observation: Light-touch mapping of communal space use is conducted periodically to track how patterns of play and informal gathering evolve over time. • End-point comparison (Month 18): Baseline tools are repeated to assess changes in participation, confidence, and estate space use over the course of the project. What the data shows so far (early insight) Early consultation work indicates a low baseline of independent outdoor play, with over half of surveyed residents reporting that children are unable to play outside as much as they would like due to safety concerns and environmental conditions. Qualitative feedback from residents highlights both strong demand and urgency for safer outdoor provision, particularly on estates where communal spaces are underused or perceived as unsafe. These early findings suggest that even small-scale, trusted adult-and-youth presence in estate spaces has the potential to increase children’s willingness to engage in outdoor play and to re-establish informal peer-to-peer activity. During our community consultations, pavement chalks given away to children were immediately and enthusiastically put to creative and collaborative use. Across our early co-design and consultation sessions (38 adults and 22 children), there was overwhelming support for the proposed teen ambassador model. Only one respondent was opposed and one was unsure, with the vast majority expressing clear enthusiasm for young people leading and delivering doorstep play activity on their estates. This provides early validation for the model’s acceptability and legitimacy within the community. How we know we are on track for systems change We will consider the model to be on track when we see: • sustained repeat attendance and informal “knocking” behaviours between sessions • increased independent peer-led play on estates • growing parent confidence in allowing outdoor play • a gradual reduction in reliance on adult facilitation as Play Ambassadors and youth workers take greater ownership of delivery A further key indicator will be increasing engagement from LBBD Council and housing providers, including growing interest in learning from the model, use of delivery data, and willingness to explore how elements of the approach could be embedded within housing management, public realm, or play policy. This progression from observational interest towards structured collaboration will be a key marker of wider system influence.

Long-term impact: what lasting systems change are you seeking to create and how will you know when it has happened?

Targeted systems change statement Our goal is to permanently shift the default state of Barking & Dagenham’s housing estates from low-activity, indoor, screen-based isolation towards active, resident-led doorstep play—transforming overlooked communal spaces into recognised assets for children’s physical activity, social connection, and youth leadership. This reduces reliance on capital-build playground provision by embedding play into the everyday use of existing estate space. The 5–10 year success vision In five to ten years, success will be visible through both policy and behavioural change. Housing management frameworks will increasingly support and normalise play in communal spaces, including more permissive approaches to informal activity and a reduction in restrictive practices such as “No Ball Games” enforcement. At community level, outdoor play becomes a routine part of estate life. Children regularly initiate outdoor activity, including informal peer-to-peer “knocking” to meet friends, while parents feel confident allowing independent outdoor play. Communal spaces shift from being underused or avoided to functioning as shared social infrastructure for residents. The “disappearance test” If London Play and this funding were removed, the paid Play Ambassador roles would cease, as they are intentionally designed as a funded entry point into youth employment and leadership. However, several embedded system changes would remain: • Youth workforce legacy: Through sustained exposure to playwork practice alongside London Play’s Lead Playworker, local youth workers within Future MOLDS, BDYD and JDS develop practical risk–benefit play facilitation skills. This builds long-term capacity within existing estate-based youth provision to continue supporting outdoor play. • Parent and resident behaviour change: Families who participate become more confident supporting outdoor play and more likely to encourage informal peer-to-peer activity, including “knocking” between children. Over time, relationships formed through repeated sessions create a connected group of parents and carers who are increasingly willing to support and organise informal doorstep play activities. This emerging network provides the basis for continued voluntary convening of play beyond the funded period. • Physical infrastructure: Mobile loose-parts kits and shelter equipment remain in estate-based storage, enabling continued informal use by local organisations beyond the project lifespan. • Policy and practice influence: Evidence generated through our “deliver to influence” model provides housing providers and the local authority with a tested case for integrating doorstep play into housing management, estate activation, and future commissioning frameworks. Over time, this creates the conditions for the approach to be adopted and adapted across additional estates in Barking & Dagenham, supporting borough-wide expansion through existing housing and youth service structures rather than standalone replication.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with us that you were not able to share in previous questions?

We would add that this initiative has been shaped as much by iterative learning in practice as by our initial design. Early testing confirmed that resident trust, consistency, and visible local leadership are more important than programme design alone in unlocking estate-based play. A key underpinning principle is that this is not simply a play intervention, but a shift in who holds the authority to activate and define shared space. By paying young residents as Play Ambassadors and embedding delivery within trusted local youth organisations, we are intentionally redistributing that authority in a way that is visible, practical, and sustained through everyday relationships. One additional point that has been important in shaping the final design of this initiative is the role of trust and legitimacy within Barking & Dagenham’s existing youth ecosystem. Our local youth consortium partners were understandably cautious about external organisations delivering estate-based work, reflecting wider sector experience of short-term “parachuting in” models that can overlook or bypass established local provision. Rather than treating this as a barrier, we adapted the model in response. The initiative is now explicitly structured so that delivery is anchored through trusted local youth organisations (Future MOLDS, BDYD and JDS), with London Play focusing on specialist playwork expertise, training, and governance rather than frontline ownership. This shift has been central to moving from consultation to genuine co-design. It has strengthened partner confidence, enabled open shaping of delivery, and ensured the model complements rather than competes with existing youth provision, reinforcing local capacity rather than replacing it. Finally, we want to acknowledge the urgency specific to Barking & Dagenham: a high child population, limited staffed play infrastructure, rapidly growing population, and significant new housing development are all contributing to both pressure and opportunity. These changes are bringing new communities into the borough who often have limited existing social ties or connection to place. This combination makes it a particularly strong setting to test whether doorstep play, led by local young people and embedded within trusted organisations, can shift everyday norms at scale. An additional anticipated systems-level impact is a shift in intergenerational perceptions of teenagers. Our focus groups with young people highlighted experiences of being viewed negatively or treated with suspicion in shared estate spaces. By placing local teenagers in visible, paid, pro-social leadership roles through Play Ambassadors, the model creates regular opportunities for residents - particularly parents of younger children - to see young people actively contributing to community life. Over time, this has the potential to reduce automatic negative assumptions about teenagers and strengthen trust between age groups within the estate environment.

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