Seen on the ukPlayworkers e-group At first glance this may seem empowering, but hang on, young people don't need to pay anything or only a nominal sum for youth clubs and adventure playgrounds. It means that commercial provision, such as sports and leisure centres will get the tax payers money, instead of it being invested in youth and play services. Are the government reinventing the discredited voucher schemes the Tories would have introduced for U5's provision if they had won the 97 election? Other right wing ideas have been to give people vouchers equivalent to the cost of other public services, such as health care and primary and secondary education, to be spent on "private" provision, in an attempt to dismantle state provision, free at point of access. Will we risk turning our work into a commercial beauty contest, with swipe card entry to parks and play areas debiting a child's "activity account"? There will be a consultation period lasting until the autumn, I think we need to ensure the play sector argues for play provision properly funded by local authorities. Is there a youth work equivalent to UK Playworkers to cross-post this on? Alan Sutton 'Playing Up'