Australia's National Plan for Play:

A World-First Framework for Children's Right to Play

Australia, in 2026, is poised to lead the world in developing the first comprehensive national play strategy grounded in children's rights, building on our current strengths and driven by those who know play best through a cross sectoral representation of stakeholders across the country.

Building on Dr Naomi Lott's internationally recognized framework addressing Space, Time, Acceptance, and Rights-Informed approaches to play, and anchored in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, this strategy represents a transformative approach to securing every child's fundamental right to play.

What makes this ground-breaking:

This is not a Government agenda, this is a community agenda.

This is not dependent on the whims of policy priorities by Government,

Through comprehensive national mapping, we will identify and celebrate existing play initiatives across Australia while revealing the gaps that demand urgent attention. This strategy recognizes that play is more than just playgrounds—it encompasses urban planning, design, educations, children’s services, health agencies, playgroups, pop up programs, and the countless ways children engage in self-directed play across diverse settings.

Across Australia, play is thriving in pockets of excellence and innovation. Yet not all children have equal access. For the first time, we will document play deserts—communities where children's access to play is severely limited—and expose patterns of spatial injustice that disproportionately affect our most vulnerable children.

We will use this to plan to drive the development of an action plan for advocacy and engagement from government and philanthropy.

This is more than research. It's a call to action.

Dual-purpose by design:

For the sector: A powerful advocacy tool that gives voice to the critical importance of play, backed by evidence and grounded in children's rights.

For government: A practical planning framework that identifies where investment is needed and provides clear pathways for implementation across local, state, and federal levels.

A collaborative vision:

Sector-driven and evidence-informed, this strategy will position Australia as a global leader in recognizing that play is essential to children's basic developmental and health needs as well as having intrinsic value as a critical element of childhood, centred on a rights-based approach to access and acceptance.

Together, we can ensure that every Australian child—regardless of postcode, ability, or circumstance—has access to the play opportunities they need and deserve.

How will be do this?

Commencing in February 2026, Play Australia will lead a series of summits to drive understanding and engagement of all stakeholder to establish a shared vision and blueprint for progress.

The first round of summits will commence in February 2026 and will feature Dr Naomi Lott. Naomi will be supporting us to look at the UNCRC and the right to play and how we build a framework for play using a rights-based approach. We will commence exploring vision and frameworks.  This first set of summits sets the foundation for future work. Naomi will be joined by Play Australia CEO, Robyn Monro Miller who will share her findings from her 8 week Churchill Fellowship looking at international approaches to play policy and strategy across 7 countries and 20 cities. There will be 2 addional rounds in August and October, more details on these in the coming months.

Each series of summits will drive discussion and develop and formulate more of the strategy – it will be a slow burn to build interest, awareness, knowledge and develop partnerships.  It will be accompanied by focus groups, nationwide surveys and collation of examples of practice that will support and drive change.

We will not have a final plan to consult on until 2026 and it is hoped that whilst this will commence as self-funded, via delegate registrations and in- kind provision of services and venues, we will attract sponsors as we proceed.

First Round of Summits;

follow the links to the booking sites

CANBERRA       Friday 6 February 1- 5pm   

SYDNEY            Wednesday 11 February 1-5pm

MELBOURNE   Thursday 12 February  9-1pm

BRISBANE         Monday 16 February  9-1 pm

ADELAIDE         Monday 23 Feb (tbc)  1-5pm  (Dr Naomi Lott will be pre-recorded)

PERTH               Wednesday 25 Feb (tbc)  9-1pm  (Dr Naomi Lott will be pre-recorded)

Fee – Delegates $150 p/p. Play Australia Members $90p/p.  (GST Inclusive)

Dates for August and October summits to be released in February as soon as venues confirmed.

THIS PROJECT IS AN INITIATIVE OF PLAY AUSTRALIA.

WE APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT OF DELEGATE REGISTRATION FEES IN FUNDING THIS INITIATIVE.

Introducing  - Helle Nebelong  

Helle Nebelong is a Danish Landscape Architect MAA, MDL and Master of Public Management, MPM. She runs her own private practice since 2006. Helle is specialized in Health Design and focused on how to improve the city for everyday life for everybody. She is internationally recognized as a key pioneer of the natural playground movement. Some of her best-known public projects in Copenhagen are The Garden of Senses and the Nature Playground in Valbyparken. The latter is Copenhagen’s most popular playground and is referred to as “one of the best-designed playgrounds for children in the world” in the Encyclopedia of Play in Today’s Society by Rodney P. Carlisle (SAGE 2009). Murergaarden's playground – a very small 1000 sqm playground and public pocket park in the center of Copenhagen is referred to as “an icon for natural play” in The Science of Play by Susan G. Solomons (UPNE 2014). In 2023 a huge park - Ilse and Charles Jobson Natural Play Park – designed by Helle was inaugurated in Illinois, USA, the process followed by BBC podcast series In the Studio. 

Helle was employed by the City of Copenhagen (1994-2006). Among others as the team leader of an interdisciplinary team responsible for developing an action plan to improve accessibility in Copenhagen. The Technical and Environmental Administration’s strategy “City for All – Improving the accessibility of the Urban Spaces in Copenhagen” was politically adopted in 2005. Universal Design and sustainability have always been focusing points in Helles work.

      In February …

Australian Researchers

Our Australian Researchers are doing some amazing work when it comes to play research. In 2026 we will be showcasing this research and each month we will feature a research presentation from one or two of our Playful academics!!

Marion and Jorges are kicking us off sharing their research at a webinar on February 4, and through the year more will join the party.  If you are one of them, please reach out!

"Out of Bounds" with Marion Sturges and Jorje Knijnik

Wednesday 4th

4:00pm (Sydney, Melbourne & Canberra timezone)

Register Here

2025 IPA Asia Pacific Conference Encore Series

Encore! Encore!  We heard you cheering and hot off the success of last year’s Asia Pacific Conference hosted by Play Australia, we will also feature encore performances all year from some of our favourite speakers and members, who are happy to reprise their presentations for those who missed out!   Lucky us, Lucinda Jones and Dr Kate Renshaw will be kicking this off on February 9 and 23 respectively!

Lucinda Jones 

Monday 9th

4:00pm (Sydney, Melbourne & Canberra timezone)

Register Here

Dr Kate Renshaw

Monday 23rd

7:00pm (Sydney, Melbourne & Canberra timezone)

Register Here

Play "Essentials" 

Our new Play “Essentials” members webinar series is designed for early childhood, parents and those working in children’s services. Each month we will be hosting a webinar featuring an Australian expert who will provide us with new perspectives on aspects of play in early childhood and we will release to coincide with each presentation a fact sheet on the topic that can be used for families, carers and educators to support your advocacy on the topic.

We are kicking off this free member series with a super interesting presentation from expert Aussie microbiologist Dr Jake Robinson on “Dirty Play”. We will be delving deep into why play in dirt is helpful for our microbiome.

"Time to get dirty" with Dr Jake Robinson

Thursday 19th

4:00pm (Sydney, Melbourne & Canberra timezone)

Register Here

Adventures in Playspace Design Series

On the topic of play spaces - the newly launched Adventures in Playspace Design Series will again be delivered in 2026. The webinar series showcases our Australian play space designers. Join us in conversation on Play space design, in the last week of each month at 1pm, with one of our talented members who have made a career out of award-winning play space designs. Each designer will share with us perspectives and inspirations on one, or two, of their award winning play space designs, with opportunities for questions following the presentation. These webinars are free for Play Australia members and bookings now open for our February event featuring Jeff Nelson from Melbourne City Council, and our April event featuring Ric McConaghy. (we skipped March as it is was too close to Easter!)

Our 2025 sessions featuring Fiona Robbe, Mary Jeavons and Leong Khoo were incredibly well received, and people are still viewing the recordings. These are still free to view until 30 January. If you know of someone that should present let us know – we are keen to have our members showcase their ideas and work.

Jeff Nelson - Nature Play at Royal Park

Thursday 26th

1:00pm (Sydney, Melbourne & Canberra timezone)

Register Here

In Person Training Events.......

Playspace Development and Maintenance 

course will be running four times in 2026, and dates are now set and open for bookings. We have revamped this course and have a suite of design, risk, maintenance and development experts in their field presenting over the 2 days, including Mary Jeavons, Kait Cummins, Paul Grover, Rob Hamilton, Bruce Stephens and Robyn Monro Miller.

This is an in-person course in Melbourne at Westerfolds Park, if coming from interstate let us know in advance as we can provide a $250 travel rebate off the course cost and provide you advice re travel. We also can run it as a customised program in your state/territory so reach out if you are interested!

Find dates, locations and booking links here

Certificate in Playwork Practice is up to cohort 3…!! 

Once again, Martin is joining us from Wales for a new cohort of training delivery and bookings now open.  

Check the link for dates and locations, these events fill fast. We start with an online orientation on Thursday 29 January. We also plan a smaller cohort 4 for the 2^nd half of the year.

Find dates, locations and booking links here

There is so much happening at Play Australia, watch out for the regular monthly E-News Play Space and more editions of Newsflash with updates.