A place to play & learn about playwork

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We don’t need to fix children. We need to fix the system

The 23rd National Playwork Conference was held in Eastbourne in March. Organised by Meynell Games, this year’s edition of the annual two-day event attracted more than 170 delegates to the Cavendish Hotel

T he National Playwork Conference is like no other event. This becomes very clear from the very beginning, when nearly every delegate is greeted personally, upon arrival, by the driving force behind the conference – play industry pioneer Meynell. “Our approach has been, for 23 years, to deliver the conference as we would a playwork setting,” he explains. “I believe that’s what makes it so successful.” The event is the largest national gathering of playwork people from across the sector. It brings play professionals together to share their knowledge and thinking, offering an opportunity for playworkers to learn from each other.

Learning opportunities

This year’s conference featured 12 themed “tracks” across the two days, from which delegates could pick sessions to attend. In total, there were more than 50 talks and presentations, given by play industry experts from across the UK, US, Australia, Denmark, Greece and Kenya. Track 5 began with a deep dive into Play England’s 10-year strategy, “It All Starts With Play”. Eugene Minogue, the industry body’s Executive Director, outlined how the strategy, announced in 2025, provides an ambitious roadmap to restore a play-based childhood for all children by 2035.

“Children’s freedom to play has been steadily eroded – by fear, traffic, time poverty, risk aversion and shrinking space,” Minogue said. “But children haven’t changed. They still need what they’ve always needed: time, space, opportunity and freedom to play.

“We don’t need to fix children. We need to fix the system. And that’s what the strategy aims to do. It’s a practical plan to ensure play is recognised, accepted and protected again — in policy, in planning, in design, in streets, schools and public space.”

Nervous systems choose spaces long before policies do

Inclusion and insights

Elsewhere, Miguel Sicart, Associate Professor and Head of the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen, gave a thought-provoking talk titled “Play in the Age of Computing Machinery”. He discussed how, as screens are everywhere and everyday life is increasingly digitised, it is easy to be too pessimistic – and instead, the sector should come up with tactics and strategies to resist the negative aspects of digitalisation through “playful appropriation”.

One of the topics that featured across several of the tracks was how to better cater for – and include – neurodivergent children in play. In a session titled “The Neurodivergent Pull in Playwork”, Angie Casella and Kaycee Larney from Australia-based Curious Me confronted what they described as “uncomfortable question many sense but rarely voice”: do neurodivergent playworkers attract neurodivergent children – and what does that reveal about belonging in play?

Through the lens of lived experience as neurodivergent playworkers (and mothers) themselves, they argued that inclusion is not something that can be added to existing systems. “Nervous systems choose spaces long before policies do,” they said.

On the same topic, delegates also heard from Max Alexander from Play Radical, who shared his insights on play, disruption and non-compliance, alongside the wisdom of disability justice movements. “We need to think about inclusion as something that is essential and radical, rather than something that is nice and charitable,” he said.

Elsewhere, Professor Peter Gray from Boston College, delivered a powerful session on how play has an evolutionary function in promoting innovation, resilience and cooperation – as well as training humans to practice something they need (or want) to learn.

“Young mammals, including humans, come into the world biologically designed to play,” Professor Gray argued. “But why would natural selection have promoted behaviour that looks purposeless and clearly has costs – it uses energy and can be noisy and attract predators or cause injury. It is simple – it’s because play has survival benefits that outweigh the costs.”

Other speakers and facilitators over the two days included Andrew Robertson, founder of the Family Gaming Database; Helen Dodd, Professor of Child Psychology at the University of Exeter; Jayne Osgood, Professor of Childhood Studies at Middlesex University; Martin King-Sheard from Play Wales; Adrian Voce from Starlight Children’s Foundation and Meynell himself talking about the importance of love, joy and empathy in playwork practice.

Rewarding the change-makers

According to Meynell, this year’s edition of the Conference was the “best ever”. “We had a fantastic breadth of topics and speakers,” he said. “What was great to see was that there were many young playworkers attending. This was in no small part thanks to our generous sponsors, OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning), whose support meant that we could help with the financial cost of attending for students and make the event more accessible for all.”

The Annual Playwork Awards are an integral part of the Conference, where there is a gala event and the announcement of the recipients of the Annual Playwork Awards for 2026. The awards set out to celebrate all that is good about the UK Playwork sector, highlighting the work of people and organisations who have made a noticeable contribution and difference to the lives of those they work with.

This year’s award recipients were:

Professional Development Award: Portsmouth City Council Play & Youth Service Frontline Playwork Award: Learning Partnership West CIC Play and Community Development Award: Meriden Adventure Playwork Altogether Different Award: The Whitworth, Manchester UK Playwork Sector Award: Amber Ogunsanya William During the awards dinner, Meynell revealed the launch of a Playwork Hall of Fame, which will be established in partnership with the Playwork Foundation. The first 10 names to be inducted to the Hall of Fame will be revealed ahead of next year’s conference.

According to Meynell, the planning for the 24th Conference is already underway. “We already have some of the cast list ready for 2027,” he said. “The event will again be held on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of March – at same venue. Watch this space for more announcements!”