Spring | Summer 2025
The new issue of our magazine explores the theme of playing in neighbourhoods, focusing on places and spaces to play. It features examples from across Wales.
Play supports children to feel part of their neighbourhoods and children across Wales tell us that opportunities to play in their local area, with friends, matters to them. The articles highlight varied collaborative approaches to offering opportunities to play to best meet the needs of children in their areas.
Features include:
- What almost 8,000 children across Wales have to say about neighbourhood play – what’s good and what’s not so good about their opportunities to play
- Thinking outside the box – examples of neighbourhood play projects led by the Play and Youth Support Team at Wrexham County Borough Council, Cardiff Council’s Children’s Play Services and Gwynedd’s Early Years Unit
- Romilly Road Play Street – a play street organiser shares her experience of building a playful community in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan
- Playday 2025 – a collection of photos of children and families across Wales celebrating the national day for play
- Play lane in Pillgwenlly – an example of how a community in Newport has worked with a housing provider to transform a lane to create a pop up play space for local children
- Improving play spaces and playgrounds – an overview of the Welsh Government’s investment to improve opportunities to play along with a good practice example from Monmouthshire County Council’s refurbished Williams Firled Lane playground
- Spotlight on a community play development officer – an insight into a role in the world of play and playwork.
This issue also includes two articles international articles:
- Vice Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Professor Emeritus Philip Jaffé, shares his views about children’s right to play and how it should be prioritised in a challenging, changing world
- IPA Cymru Wales branch secretary, Marianne Mannello, reports on a playful collaboration with IPA Japan to celebrate this year’s International Day of Play.
