Play should be a right for all not a luxury: putting Gypsy and Traveller children at the heart of the Play agenda
Play should be a right for all, not a luxury— it’s fundamental to children’s development and happiness. Having spaces designed for children ensures they feel valued and part of society. The new Play Commission’s recent report after a yearlong inquiry, ‘Everything to Play For’, also makes this clear, and is attempting to put play and it’s importance for children’s wellbeing back on top of the government agenda.
But is the report asking the right questions? Are all children’s access to play and their wellbeing being equally considered?
Our work for over 20 years has always been about improving the lives of our membership and ensuring Gypsies and Travellers (both adults and young people) have their voices heard. Too often though, that’s not always the way for Gypsy and Traveller children, especially when living on permanent sites.
A permanent site is like a small housing estate but instead of houses, each concrete plot has a small building with a bathroom and kitchen inside and space to put homes on (caravans and/or chalets). For this, families pay rent, council tax and utilities in the usual way. There’s no green space or space for play on any of the four main sites in West Yorkshire, and no playgrounds.
To our members who live on Cottingley Springs, a Gypsy and Traveller site in Leeds, making the site a better place to grow up is crucially important. This concern has been the same for many decades. Our kids are fun, energetic, resourceful and imaginative but their built environment (where a lot of family life takes place) is dull and often harsh.
Cottingley Springs was opened to residents over 50 years ago. Since then, members have been let down many times when pushing for action. Petitions in our archive dating back 30 years ask for a play space on site for children that then never happened. People rightly feel that things won't ever change. And yet those who were probably young children when those petitions were written wanted to try again – to try and give their kids what they never had.
We convened partners across our systems including from our Local Authority and voluntary sector to ask for help and support in exploring what play and community space might look like on the site, and how growing up there impacts children.
Shortly after, our first project to make change visible on site began; to create a memorial garden to our youth worker and community hero, Kathleen Morrison, who passed away in 2012 at only 33. She pioneered our youth inclusion work and still inspires much of how we work to this day. Most importantly, Kathleen always told our young people that whatever they wanted to do or be, they could achieve it.
Kathleen Morrison’s name engraved on a piece of wood at the front of her memorial garden on Cottingley Springs site in Leeds
Kathleen’s Memorial Garden was designed with children and parents on site, and we worked with a brilliant local partner organisation Hyde Park Source to build it. Since opening in May 2024, our after school gardening club has been helping people make decisions on how the space will be used. A garden designed by members, for their use has really transformed how we work on site. The space feels purposeful and demonstrates the value we place in our members and where they live.
This was an important step on our journey but only the beginning. We wanted to go even bolder, bigger – and playful! What opportunities could we find for play on site, working with what we had? What barriers did children currently feel to playing how they wanted to, and how could we work around these?
That came in the shape of a humongous shipping container – the Playbox – being dropped on site at 7am one day in late May 2025 to begin a week of fun. Playful Anywhere are an incredible community organisation that helped us realise our vision. To reclaim space, explore creativity and come together as a community. To make four days just about play.
Each day we had around 25 children join us to do basically whatever they wanted. With changeable weather we worried each day about whether people would join in. But even heavy rain didn’t stop the kids from getting stuck in and trying new things. In this world they created, paint could go on the floor as well as faces and games had no end or beginning.
That’s the biggest lesson we had from the experience – the barriers that adults and systems lack of imagination can put in children's way.
It felt great to put streamers on the fence and leg warmers on the bollards and shake things up a bit. The kids loved it and the adults supported it every step of the way. The party on the last day with ice cream and cake was a wonderful celebration. It allowed us to start to think about what was possible and explore what we could do next.
We so often hear negative things about our communities. Members often tell us that they feel that their built environments on sites reflect the worth placed on them by wider society and is a visible demonstration of structural and environmental racism.
Gypsy and Traveller sites are most often far removed. We understand that most likely, if not from the community yourself or working in an organisation like ours, you may not have ever been onto one. Of course, all people deserve privacy in their homes. But this degree of separation and marginalisation is by design. The built environment is cold and run down. Indeed, the biggest issue identified across our health needs assessments by members is the deep and generational mental health impacts of where they live.
Despite the lack of child-friendly surroundings on sites, things defined by the Play Commission’s report as ‘aspirational’ are often present in abundance. Such a wealth of life, laughter and multi-generational families in strong units, children showing independence and resourcefulness.
There’s a long way to go on this journey. We'll keep going and see what's next. Fundamentally, we can’t do it on our own. We agree with the Play Commission’s report in that we desperately need the political will and leadership to move this forward.
We passionately believe that all our Gypsy and Traveller kids - on sites and camps and in houses - deserve the best start and deserve to feel included and valued. That’s the bold ambition Leeds has - to be a place where children are supported, enjoy living and can look forward to a bright future – a truly “child-friendly city”.
Every place and community is different. But every child needs the opportunity and space to play -to explore who they are and who they’ll grow up to be. This is not only what communities know for themselves, but what those in authority have recognised too. The commission has called for a rights-based approach to play, to make it guaranteed for children.
We know we have the vision and passion and we have a great team – the kids, the residents, Leeds GATE, a range of amazing and creative people and organisations in Leeds just like Playful Anywhere and Hyde Park Source, as well as some local authority allies. We must be able to count on wider key stakeholders to play their part in this process. Our kids are part of the next generation too, and they are brilliant. They deserve for their environment to reflect their intrinsic worth as children. When it comes to their futures, there really is no time to wait.
You can see our recap reel from our Instagram below or see it on our reels - and continue to follow our work there.