Welcome to my journal.
Get an insight into my day-to-day work and my perspective on key issues.
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.
The Raising The Nation Play Commission - Six Months in….
First published on the Raising the Nation Play Commission website 3 February 2025. HERE
Incredibly, we are already into the second half of our year-long Raising the Nation Play Commission. Time is flying by, but we’ve already packed so much in, including…
Where have all the childhoods gone?
Anne Longfield CBE and I wrote this article about how play has disappeared from childhoods, and why it is critical to reverse the trend - citing the Raising the Nation Play Commission that we launched in June 2024 as our commitment to see the change we demand is delivered.
Launching the ‘Raising the Nation’ Play Commission
Politicians should ask how our children can thrive: how they can feel significant, be confident, have life affirming childhoods and become the people that they each have the potential to be.
Because thriving childhoods reflect thriving societies, and as play is central to thriving childhoods, it should be central to political decision-making. The way children explore, experiment and build an understanding of the world really matters.
