Catherine Prisk, director of Play England, put herself forward for redundancy after the charity, which until last year was part of the National Children’s Bureau, failed to secure more grant funding.

Play England will now be led by its chair, Andy Grout, who is also chief executive at the Milton Keynes Play Association and Steven Chown, who has been the organisation’s programme development manager for five years.

Prisk is now in the process of setting up a social enterprise, Outdoor People, which will aim to encourage children and families to spend more time outdoors. It will launch on 10 May to coincide with National Children’s day.

She said: “We became a charity last year but were not successful in getting more grants. It is tough for funding strategic programmes and the world is a challenging place for charities at the moment.

“It was with regret that I had to recommend myself being made redundant. It's been fantastic and a huge privilege to work at Play England. I will miss it a lot and will continue to support the chair, Andy Grout who I know will continue the fight for freedom to play.”

Prisk was promoted from deputy director to director in 2011 and had worked for the organisation since 2008.  

Play England registered as a charity at the end of 2012 and has not yet filed accounts with the Charity Commission. It was previously part of the national children’s charity NCB.