Explore Play Wales
In our new research report, 7,924 children and teenagers tell us about how satisfied they are about their opportunities to play in their local area. Written by Dr David Dallimore, a research consultant specialising in early years childcare and play, What children say about play in Wales: 2025 presents a picture of children’s play satisfaction.
The report provides the opportunity for children and teenagers’ voices to be heard, highlighting
- the importance of play in their lives
- what’s good and what’s not so good about the play opportunities in their local area
- how satisfied they are about when, how and where they can play.
To emphasise children’s voices throughout, it also features insightful quotes from children and teenagers of all ages from across Wales.
The majority of children value and enjoy their opportunities to play, but some groups of children stand-out in their reporting of low satisfaction with their play opportunities, including girls, disabled children and ethnic minority children. Children overwhelmingly say that play is essential for their happiness, development and social life. The message from children is clear: they want more time, better spaces and greater freedom to play.
This report has been created using data from local authorities’ Play Satisfaction Survey results. The survey is used by local authorities to consult with children and teenagers as part of their Play Sufficiency Assessments. Whilst all 22 local authorities are committed to ensuring that consultation with children is undertaken as part of their Play Sufficiency Assessments (PSA), 16 were able to provide anonymised data in a format that could be used for this report.
The report is supplemented by a qualitative analysis undertaken by Dr Michaela James and Dr Hope Jones from Swansea University.
Thank you to all our local authority partners who worked with us in planning, collecting, collating and sharing the data. Having a standardised survey that is now being used by most local authorities means that we can reliably record children and teenagers’ voices from across the country.
Play Wales says:
‘We are delighted to publish the views of almost 8,000 children and teenagers who have told us about their opportunities to play in their local area. It is important to recognise that many factors influence opportunities to play. Although these can’t be identified through survey data alone, the Play Satisfaction Survey does provide valuable information about where further research at local level can focus.
Whilst we are pleased that the picture presented by children and teenagers across Wales is that they are allowed out, feel safe, and able to play in the places they want to, and overall are satisfied with their opportunities to play, there is room for improvement. Some groups of children and teenagers stand-out in their reporting of low satisfaction with their opportunities to play. We will continue to campaign for more and better opportunities to play for every child in Wales.’