Playing Out story

From small parent-led action to international movement.

2007-8: Talking and imagining

Playing Out has its roots in discussions and imaginings amongst like-minded parents in south Bristol, frustrated that our children’s freedom was so restricted, mainly because of traffic-dominated streets. Neighbours Alice Ferguson and Amy Rose hit on an idea that would provide a temporary solution and could start to change things more deeply.

2009: A seed is sown

The first ‘playing out’ session happened on Alice and Amy’s street on International Children’s Day, 1st June 2009. While neighbours looked out for cars and chatted, dozens of children of all ages played in the street together as naturally as if they did it every day. Adults were amazed at the number of children, neighbours got to know each other, there was a new sense of ‘our space’, and everyone agreed it was a brilliantly simple, change-making idea.

2010: A model develops

Encouraged by this success, we applied for a small amount of funding and supported five other local streets to trial the model. We developed guidance materials, made a film and set up the early version of this website to help and inspire others. Read the 2010 report here.

The idea – and conversations around it – quickly spread.  We received emails and calls from residents, councils, organisations and experts in the field of children and play, including Tim Gill, a leading childhood/play expert, who said, “I think this is the most exciting, visionary initiative I’ve heard about for the last decade or more”.

2011: The idea spreads

A flurry of national media coverage, including features on Radio 4’s PM, Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show and ITV Tonight, prompted parents from across the UK to get in touch. Within a couple of weeks, we had responded to over 100 enquiries from people wanting to get their own streets ‘playing out’ all over the UK.

Co-creating an organisation for change

It was clear that there was a real demand for what we were doing. A group of parents met to decide what to do about it. Four of us – Ingrid Skeels and Naomi Fuller alongside Alice and Amy –  were excited about the potential for social change and agreed to set up Playing Out as a Community Interest Company with an aim to support resident-led street play across the UK.

In September 2011, Bristol City Council launched the Temporary Play Street Order (TPSO) pilot, allowing residents to open their streets for play up to 3 hours a week. This was radical paperwork!

2012: A groundbreaking policy

More national press resulted in over 300 enquiries from residents, professionals and councils across the UK and a pilot evaluation by Bristol University found that playing out sessions significantly increased children’s physical activity.

By September 2012, 17 Bristol streets had organised regular playing out sessions. Bristol City Council established the TPSO as ongoing policy, setting a precedent for other councils to follow.

2013-2026: A national / international movement

Discussions with the Department for Health led to funding to support street play over 3 years (2013-16), in partnership with Play England, London Play and the University of Bristol, with Playing Out providing a hub for residents and growing the national grassroots movement. By the end the funding, over 400 street communities had started playing out across the UK, directly benefitting around 12,000 children.

Whilst the movement spread far and wide, we continued to be deeply rooted in Bristol as a ‘lab’ for new ideas and learning – supporting playing out in high-rise estates and co-facilitating the Bristol Child Friendly City project. You can read a report of the work we did across Bristol in 2015 and 2016 here.

From 2016, Amy and Naomi (though still connected) left to do other great work. Co-founders Alice and Ingrid co-led Playing Out CIC from then until its end in 2026. We continued to grow the play street movement and by summer 2024, over 1,600 streets had played out regularly, over 100+ local authority areas, with tens of thousands of children and adults benefitting. The idea also spread internationally.

Equalities and policy change

Over this time, we also continued with key learning and project work, looking at outdoor free play and important equalities issues including children’s voice, poverty and disadvantage, and racism.

Using the growing community led play streets movement as our platform, we increasingly defended children’s right to play and campaigned for wider policy-change towards our long-term aim of restoring ALL children’s freedom to play out. We raised awareness of the importance of outdoor free play and the need for action in both the housing and sport sectors.

And in our last couple of years, we succeeded in getting recommendations around outdoor free play into many national policy documents: the parliamentary Inquiry into Children and the Built Environment (2023), the Play Commission (2025), the Covid Inquiry (2025), the parliamentary DMCS evidence session on play (2025) as well as raising awareness more widely through collaborating on work such as the London Sport led More Ball Games Campaign.

Into the future

Playing Out CIC closed its doors at the end of March 2026, with a big event at Bristol City Hall to celebrate, share, and encourage action into the future.  The movement continues…. and we hope it helps towards significant and lasting change for children.