One of our most popular and well-used services is our Play Service, which offers free, supervised play sessions for 5-11 yr olds both at our base, Woodhouse Park Family Centre and at a local primary school both during term-time and the school holidays. Sessions are open to ALL local children and are a chance for children living in a deprived area to experience a wide variety of play opportunities in an environment where they can control when and how they play. This freedom of choice encourages independence and gives them experiences they would otherwise not be able to access. This is important for local children as parent concerns about ‘stranger danger’, anti-social behaviour and traffic mean many children are not allowed to play out near their homes and there are limited local leisure amenities i.e. no cinema, soft play centres, bowling alley etc . Our current funding for this project runs out in April 2008 and we are looking for avenues to enable us to continue to offer this vital service. We run six sessions a week, four at the Family Centre and two at Ringway Primary School. In addition to these sessions we also carry out some individual support for targeted children around self-esteem and behaviour issues in partnership with the family and school. We employ two local parents as playworkers and encourage local residents to become involved in the project as volunteers or sessional workers.