Australia's National Plan for Play:
A 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 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 groundbreaking?
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 recognising play as essential to children's developmental and health needs and 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 are we doing this?
Commenced in February 2026, Play Australia has led a series of summits and key stakeholder meetings to drive understanding and engagement of all stakeholders to establish a shared vision and blueprint for play in Australia.
To do this we have undertaken a journey of exploration - we have to start to bring everyone together across multiple sectors to learn what is happening internationally for play, and what we currently have in Australia.
The first round of summits commenced in February 2026 and featured 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 commenced exploring vision and frameworks. This first set of summits set the foundation for future work. Naomi was joined by Play Australia CEO, Robyn Monro Miller who shared her findings from her 8 week Churchill Fellowship looking at international approaches to play policy and strategy across 8 countries and 18 cities and towns.
In August, a second round of Summits featured Scott McKenzie from Sport NZ sharing with us their Initiatives and how play is being embedded across participating local governments.
In October, Dr Wendy Russell, joined us from the UK, for a series of events exploring Play Sufficiency and Spatial Justice. Wendy has been a key member of the research team for Play Sufficiency in Wales and England. This will cover what is play sufficiency, conditions for play and how we identify and address issues of spacial justice.
Each series of summits will drive discussion, public awareness and develop and formulate more thinking about what a grass roots national Plan for Play might look like – it will be a slow burn to build interest, awareness, knowledge and develop meaningful partnerships.
Read the Report from Round 1
Round 2 Summits – 31 August to Thursday 10 September 2026 with Scott McKenzie, Sport NZ.
Round 3 Summits - 13 to 24 October 2026 with Dr Wendy Russell, University of Gloucester.
A final report is currently being prepared.
What is next?
In 2027 nationwide state and territory meetings known as "Play Dialogues" will commence. These quarterly cross sectoral meetings are designed to identify and address specific state and territory issues under a national spotlight.
To learn more about the Play Dialogues https://www.playaustralia.org.au/playdialogues
In addition a nationwide survey on the big issues we need to address will be conducted in late 2027/early 2028 and a collation of examples of practice will commence that will support and drive change.
In addition a range of events and awareness raising activities are being announced throughout the year, many are part of a long term strategy and not one off - we know establishing systems and communication channels is essential to impact real change.
We will not have a final plan to consult on until late 2027/ early 2028, and the process of this will be fluid, guided by what we discover along the way. Like play, we are engaging in the process, not focussed on a defined product.
Who is funding this?
The summits were self-funded, via delegate registrations and in-kind provision of services and venues, but we hope to attract sponsors for delivery of other outcomes as we proceed.
These sponsors will believe in the audicuous vision for an Australia where healthy communities are built through the power of play.
If you are interested in sponsoring or engaging in provision of support for this work please contact the CEO, Robyn Monro Miller by email ceo@playaustralia.org.au, for a confidential conversation ( yep, we want to know our values align first !). Our organisation is a charity and we have a DGR Community Fund for projects that meet the requirements of the Australian Tax Office.