ABSTRACT
The introduction of risk-benefit assessment, and the acknowledgement of the complexity of decision making in relation to public space, has implications for the kind of expertise needed for judgements over what is provided and sanctioned, and who is competent. The HM Treasury approach has been adapted for public life, in the context of children's and young people's play, in the publication by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Play England on the design of play space. The adoption and adaptation of the Treasury model was deemed essential, firstly, to dispel the falsehood that successful play spaces are simply ordered from a catalogue, put in the ground, and left for no more than occasional maintenance and inspection. A second important message to glean from the ROAMEF cycle is the essential need for monitoring as an aid to evaluation.
