Longer reflection on Westminster's semi-permanent play streets here. This is a remarkable and bold scheme – all credit to the team – and demonstrates an approach that other local authorities could consider, another tool in the campaign to restore children’s freedom to play on their doorsteps.

Hats off to @thetcpa.bsky.social, GemmaHyde, Sophie Hadfield-Hill, Peter Kraftl and everyone else who had a hand in this. Really useful "plug-in" tools to support local authorities to think about children when developing their #LocalPlan. Fab work. www.tcpa.org.uk/resources/ch...

It brings a smile to my face every year when I realise just how many of my #playwork friends have birthdays on 1 April

Our public services aren’t for a secretive profit-hungry US tech firm. Sign the petition to tell the Government to scrap all contracts with secretive US tech firm Palantir. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

Great report from @aliceferguson.bsky.social @playingout.bsky.social and Tim Gill making the case for a "child lens" on streets and transport policy. Brings a lot of information together in one place to build a strong argument. Thank you! playingout.net/take-action/...

I’ve just shared a bit of a lengthy post about @playingout.bsky.social and the new Play Streets Network that Lucy Colbeck (former PO play streets manager) and I are going to be working on to keep supporting play streets across the country.

Hey #AdventurePlaygrounds in England, here's a rare funding opportunity. Well done, @playengland.bsky.social www.playengland.org.uk/newsblog/500...

Dear organisations: PLEASE DATE YOUR PUBLICATIONS!! Yet again, I'm doing a review that involves grey literature. Yet again, I consistently come up against organistions not dating their publications. Having no date really reduces the impact of your hard work. #RantOver

Oh WOW!!!!! This has to be somebody's dream PhD! www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

I’ll be speaking the Youth Sport Trust Conference putting play on the map as part of their work supporting young people to thrive, with their happiness and health at the heart of schools and communities. www.youthsporttrust.org/school-suppo... #YSTConference

Worrying to see this, and the power of the reductive narrative that focuses primarily/only on screens as the cause of the "anxious generation"; it permits an avoidance of bigger debates about the decline of spaces for children & young people, the impacts of austerity & inequality, and so much more:

International colleagues - please share. Call for Papers for “More Than Child’s Play: Global Perspectives on the History of Playgrounds”, Zurich 26-28 Aug. They are looking "beyond the existing West-centric scholarship." Deadline is tight - 15 January. networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

International colleagues - please share. Call for Papers for “More Than Child’s Play: Global Perspectives on the History of Playgrounds”, Zurich 26-28 Aug. They are looking "beyond the existing West-centric scholarship." Deadline is tight - 15 January. networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

This episode of the middle years, part of @drguddisingh.bsky.social 3 Ages of Child series is brilliant, looking at bottom up health creation rather than top down illness treatment. Plus it features Glamis #AdventurePlayground. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

As a taxpayer, I am happy to pay more tax to support public services and welfare. That is a mark of a civic, collective society rather than one based on individual self-interest and the elevation of wealth to a virtue. #Budget2025

#TypoOfTheDay: Play Ragers @playglos.bsky.social

Our recent article reflecting on neighbohood play during the first covid-19 lockdown, using Donald Winnicott (and Bonnie Honig and Joanna Kellond) to think about play, space, and care, both in the pandemic and beyond, now has a home in @tibg.bsky.social's December issue. @wendyrussell.bsky.social

Please sign the petition to save Human Geopgraphy at University of Leicster c.org/MrqhhLBH8J

Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!

At a trustees’ meeting at Shiremoor Adventure Playground last night, and the playworkers reported an average of 50-60 kids at after-school sessions through October. And a massive 422 visitors (children & adults) for the Halloween playday. It’s such an important place.

I'm reading through a collection of #playworkers' documentation of brief snapshot moments of playing & laughing out loud. In amongst the funding & sustainability headaches & other not-so-good aspects of the work, these joyous moments are what it's all about. #nonsense #playforplayssake #pleasure

Call for Abstracts for 2026 IPA world conference (2-5 Nov in Christchurch). Deadline 17 Feb 2026 NZDT. Theme: Auahatia (Innovating for Play), exploring bold, inclusive & culturally rich ways to create a world where all tamariki have the right to play www.ipachristchurch2026.com/call-for-abs...

Oh wow, can't wait to read this! I loved the Francis Alys exhibition. Open access too. Now all I need is some time ... uclpress.co.uk/book/playthi...

Please do sign up for - and share - this webinar, on Dec 3rd, to hear about some of the amazing work going on nationally and locally to restore children's ability to play out on their doorsteps. @rezinachowdhury.bsky.social @edwardlamb.bsky.social @playingout.bsky.social @aliceferguson.bsky.social

If you're interested in understanding segregation and integration better, here is a good paper by the UK's leading academics on the topic rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Great thread here from @alisonstenning.bsky.social on the case for paying attention to children's capability to play during #Covid19 lockdowns, including a couple of articles we wrote based on our research. So pleased @aliceferguson.bsky.social gave evidence on this to the Covid Inquiry

🚨 We’re Recruiting: Independent Chair, Senior Independent Director & Independent Director 🚨 Help lead our bold, new 10-year strategy #ItAllStartsWithPlay! Find out more & apply by 23 Oct 👉 www.playengland.org.uk/newsblog/wer... #IndependentDirectors #Chair #Trustee #CharityLeadership

Thank you @bsky.app for the bookmarking option!!

The swinging children appears again as an illustration to a piece about child poverty -

This is an inteesting study, thanks. While the authors differentiate 'physical activity' and PE, much of the focus is on PE. There is a lot that can be done looking at how the school supports play during breaks. outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk @opal-cic.bsky.social

🚨New Research 🚨 Ahead of the release of Wave 30 of the BES Internet Panel, the team has examined Labour's decline since the 2024 GE. Labour's support has splintered into mostly indecision or left-liberal parties, but they've also lost their few right-wing voters. 🧵⬇️ tinyurl.com/3m62exph

Thanks for this overview, it's useful. I get this is an analysis of *main* policy areas, but there's a lot missing from this contents list that can feed into the *main* issues, particularly in terms of children's and families' lives, health and wellbeing. #SocialInfrastructure #SpatialJustice

Interesting read. But we need to think further upstream from MH services. The decline in children's mental health over the last decade coincides with the decimation of play and youth services. If we're really looking at multiple approaches to prevention, let's fund them

"It is no longer viable—or even desirable—to manage by prescribing fixed end‑states...What matters instead is cultivating the conditions under which coherent, desirable futures can emerge from within the system itself". substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Totally agree with this - creating conditions for safe active travel is a political endeavour and includes challenging the power of the road and car industries, including the myth of EVs role in reaching net zero

We've created a detailed list of 139 films on childhood, which can be used for teaching these subjects: www.qmul.ac.uk/clpn/media/c...

Thank you @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social ‪and @playengland.bsky.social for reintroducing this play sufficiency amendment. This is much more than (important) designated play provision, it's about making neighbourhoods and town centres play friendly bills.parliament.uk/bills/3946/s...

DEEP BREATH: 5 years of meticulously researched game data culminate for us on National Play Day, Weds 6th Aug. 🤯We realised game discovery was broken. 🧪We made a prototype game-finder. 🎯We Kickstartered it into reality. 🥘We cooked with our backers. 🚀We launch Ludocene.com into the world on 6th Aug.

I'm looking forward to reading this, whay a treat - an open access too! Thank you to all involved

Thoughtful review of children’s perceptions on play, discussing results from a lit review with them & also researching with them on their own perceptions. Children "hesitated to pin down character­istics of play" seeing it as fluid. Lovely stuff link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Well done @playengland.bsky.social on getting this #APPGonPlay up and running! Looking forward to hearing more. www.playengland.org.uk/newsblog/app...

New paper from Mike Barclay, Ben Tawil and me on a Relational Capability Approach to playing and being well. Our proposed framework rests on social and spatial justice for children. Part of a SI on papers from IPA Glasgow conference. First 50 copies free from www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SVBVD...

New paper from Mike Barclay, Ben Tawil and me on a Relational Capability Approach to playing and being well. Our proposed framework rests on social and spatial justice for children. Part of a SI on papers from IPA Glasgow conference. First 50 copies free from www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SVBVD...

Great work from Active Travel England pulling together these pledges from all (but one) of the regional mayors. The focus on routes to school (which are generally locally extensive and dense) is a good way of building popular support, and putting children first. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Today is sad indictment of how we make policy in this country. Our view on the disability benefits cut vote.

New article with Pip from @playglos.bsky.social exploring how the mappings that were part of the evaluation of the #Play2Nurture project have helped generate the beginnings of a minor spatial and relational theory of therapeutic playwork. 1st 50 copies free www.tandfonline.com/eprint/CIFYY...

New article with Pip from @playglos.bsky.social exploring how the mappings that were part of the evaluation of the #Play2Nurture project have helped generate the beginnings of a minor spatial and relational theory of therapeutic playwork. 1st 50 copies free www.tandfonline.com/eprint/CIFYY...

We’re collecting testimonies on policing in schools across England. Students, parents, carers, teachers, youth workers & others — if you’ve got a perspective, we want to hear from you. WhatsApp, email, or online form 👇🏿. Pls share 🙏🏿 #PoliceInSchools www.ethnicity.ac.uk/school-policing/