The Green Flag Award Scheme: Inclusive Training

The Green Flag is the national award scheme for parks and green spaces in England and Wales. The award scheme began in 1996 to recognise the best green spaces in the country. The scheme is not about bringing in standardisation so that all environments become blandly similar. More it is about awarding diversity in open spaces around the country, and the special qualities present at different sites. Emphasis is placed on how well the site serves the local community.

Sensory Trust was brought in to run inclusive training sessions for the Green Flag judges.

Paul Todd, The Green Flag Applications Manager, said:

"As the DDA Part III came into full effect in 2004, it was important that we ensured our judges were aware of any changes in legislation that may effect how the scheme is judged.

The Scheme is judged on eight criteria, including, is the site "A Welcoming Place" which considers, amongst other things, if the site provides appropriate physical and social access for all users. Another of the criteria "Healthy Safe and Secure", asks our judges to consider if the facilities on site are accessible to people with disabilities.

We received excellent feedback from our judges as the training made them look at access issues in ways they had not previuosly considered. They were able to take this back to their sites and also provide feedback to the sites they were judging."

Other criteria include marketing, maintenance, community involvement, management, sustainability, conservation and heritage. An inclusive approach to an open space takes all these areas into consideration when planning improvements. For instance a site may have developed the pathways and routes for accessibility but may not have consulted people who use the site to make sure they would use those routes. Similarly a site may have fantastically well publicised information available but if there is a lack of staff awareness and training in inclusive practices then that information may be inaccessible to a large amount of a potential audience.

More on the Green Flag Awards at www.greenflagaward.org.uk.

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