Photo: Play street, Playing Out CIC
The TCPA has launched a set of practical ‘plug-in’ materials for Local Plan policy teams. They are designed to support local planning authorities (LPAs) in England to embed the rights, needs and voices of children and young people consistently and effectively in Local Plans.
The common definition of a ‘plug-in’ is a component that extends the functionality of an existing system without requiring the system to be re-built.
The resources have been developed in response to widespread recognition that the environments we are creating are not consistently working for children and young people. Places are too often shaped without adequate consideration of how children use the places and spaces where they live. Adopting a child-rights approach, the resources have been developed through a co-design process.
There are three plug-in resources and a table of supporting resources:
- Background document – Provides the policy and evidence context for child-friendly planning, setting out why children and young people should be considered in Local Plans and how this aligns with national policy and wider duties.
- Baseline and self-assessment tools – Offers a practical framework to help authorities review existing policies and approaches, identify gaps, and prioritise actions using a simple scoring system.
- Child-friendly planning principles and policy prompts – Sets out a series of clear, policy-ready principles that can be embedded across existing Local Plan themes, supported by questions to ask and suggested wording.
