Welcome to my journal.
Get an insight into my day-to-day work and my perspective on key issues.
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…
A National Youth Strategy is very welcome news
Yesterday, the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced that the government would create a new National Youth Strategy to break down barriers to opportunity for young people.
Her statement mattered but it came as no surprise. The life chances of young people are crucially important for the nation and the government’s strategy will bring both funding and focus. Improving those life chances is vital to success in the Government delivering on its mission to break down barriers to opportunity, but I also know that it has long been a personal mission for this particular Secretary of State.
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.
How our next government can deliver a manifesto for children
In this article -written during the 2024 General Election campaign, I reflect on what an incoming government could do for children over 10 weeks, 10 months and 10 years.
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.
Why investment in Public Service Children’s Media is so is vital - especially now.
High quality British children’s content will become scarce and could become extinct. Parents, politicians and producers all have a role to play here – but all need to step up before it’s too late. As well as our great tradition of making high quality British media for children, we risk losing our heritage of growing new producers and writers. Once the traditional, regulated broadcasters and their budgets are no longer being found by children, who will pay for this vital element of our children’s nourishment?
Innovation in the world of Children's Services
Summary of my keynote talk delivered to Coram Innovation Incubator, 2nd February 2024
