Welcome to my journal.
Get an insight into my day-to-day work and my perspective on key issues.
Reading Ahead: Episode 2: Future Skills
Children today spend around half as much time playing as they did in the 1970s. That loss isn't just a loss of fun. It's a loss of exactly the skills our economy and society will most need in the century ahead. For the last two years, alongside my work as Chancellor of the University of Reading, I have chaired the Raising the Nation Play Commission, which has made recommendations to Government advising on a National Play Strategy for England. The Commission found that much of a child's later capacity to learn, adapt and thrive is down to one simple thing: unstructured, self-directed play.
And it turns out that play could be the best way to prepare for the century ahead. In our latest episode of our podcast, Reading Ahead, out this week, I am joined by two titans in understanding the skills needed to thrive in work in the future: Dr Naeema Pasha, founder of the World of Work Institute and Martin Allen Morales, polymath entrepreneur, chef, music and tech executive and CEO of the charity Institute of Imagination.
Reading Ahead: Episode 1: Climate Change
In the middle of one of this summer's heatwaves, unable to sleep, I woke at four in the morning to find birdsong pouring in through the open window — starting almost exactly on the hour and fading again half an hour later. It struck me as extraordinary, partly because it was beautiful, and partly because I realised I almost never hear it. Most of us are asleep for the one part of the day when nature is at its loudest and most alive. It made me wonder whether those were birds that have always been here, or if there are new voices in the dawn chorus due to our shifting climate.
More than any other challenge, climate change is the one that will most drastically define the century ahead. So, in our first episode of Reading Ahead, I wanted to ask: how do we reconnect with the natural world closely enough to understand what's changing in it, and act accordingly?
Reading Ahead: A new podcast looking into the skills needed to thrive in the century ahead
I have a new podcast just launched with the University of Reading. I'm calling it Reading Ahead — a small pun on the University's name, and an honest description of what we're trying to do. Each episode, I sit down with people who are conducting research on, and finding solutions to, the challenges of the century ahead: how AI reshapes not just jobs but judgement, how we educate for a climate that won't behave like the one we grew up with, how work, wellbeing and community hold together when so much of the old scaffolding is being dismantled.
‘Everything I've Learnt, I Learnt on the Street’: Ten Years Learning from Sesame
Last week in New York I attended what was my final in-person board meeting as a Trustee and Board Director of Sesame Workshop, the creators of Sesame Street.
When my term concludes later this year, I will have served the maximum ten years on the Board and, as I sat around the board table for the last time, I found myself reflecting less on the meetings, papers and governance responsibilities, and more on what an extraordinary privilege it has been to witness close-up the work of an organisation whose mission is simple, profound and urgently needed: to help kids grow smarter, stronger and kinder. And what a difference it makes to millions of children's lives.
From Report to Movement: One Year On from Everything to Play For
One year ago, on the International Day of Play, the Raising the Nation Play Commission published its final report, Everything to Play For: A Plan to Ensure Every Child in England Can Play. It is HERE.
When we launched the report in June 2025, our ambition was simple: to put play back on the national agenda.
We argued that play is not an optional extra in childhood. It is fundamental to children’s health, wellbeing, development, learning and happiness. We made ten recommendations organised around three themes: stronger political leadership, cultural change and a rights-based approach to play.
A year later, not all ten recommendations have been implemented. Yet.
But perhaps that is not the most important story.
The most important story is that play has moved from the margins towards the mainstream.
And in doing so, a report has helped become part of a movement.
The University of Reading: 100 years of Purpose – Behind Us AND Ahead
Yesterday marked a moment of real significance for the University of Reading. One hundred years ago to the day, a bright but cloudy day in 1926, King George V granted Reading its Royal Charter, giving it university status and the power to award its own degrees.
Last night, in the Great Hall, we gathered for our annual Court meeting. But this was no ordinary occasion. It was the formal marking of that centenary, a moment to reflect not just on a date in history, but on what that moment set in motion.
From Play Streets to National Policy: Why the Movement for Children’s Play Is Gathering Momentum
Yesterday I spent the day in Bristol at a conference organised by Playing Out — an organisation that has quietly helped reshape how communities think about children, streets and play.
For more than 17 years, Playing Out has taken a simple idea and turned it into a movement: that the streets where children live should also be places where they can play.
A London for Every Child: Why this new report matters
London has always been a city of opportunity. For generations, people have come to London to study, to work, to build businesses and to experience the extraordinary diversity and energy that makes the capital one of the world’s great cities. But a question now sits quietly at the heart of London’s future: Is London still a city where families can afford to stay and raise children?
A new report from the London Assembly’s Economy, Culture and Skills Committee — A London for Every Child: Reversing the City’s Declining Child Population — suggests the answer is becoming increasingly uncertain.
‘Hope starts young. How Labour should use the power of play to tell its story of opportunity’
This article was first published on Labour List on 4th February 2026. HERE
Play is not just “nice to have”, it is fundamental to children’s health, happiness, learning and life chances. This was the simple message of my year-long Raising the Nation Play Commission, and in its final report Everything to Play For – England needs to get its children playing again.
Reflections on Hosting the IPCC at the University of Reading
Last night I had the privilege of joining colleagues from the University of Reading and guests from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for a dinner held alongside a two-day series of international workshops on our campus. Around 150 people gathered — including academics, scientists, policymakers and practitioners — united by a shared seriousness of purpose: strengthening the global evidence base on climate change, and ensuring it continues to inform action in every corner of the world.
