Welcome to my journal.
Get an insight into my day-to-day work and my perspective on key issues.
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.
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.
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.
