New research reveals gap between the value of play and the conditions to support it

Settled Purpose, Less Settled Practice: Professionals’ Experiences of Play with Children Aged 0–8 is a collaborative research report by Dr Aaron Bradbury and Philippa Thompson from Nottingham Trent University and David Meechan from the University of Northampton.

The study captured the experiences of 88 professionals working with children aged from birth to eight, including practitioners, nursery leaders, headteachers, playworkers, consultants, lecturers and advisers. The participants represented a highly experienced and qualified professional group, with 61% having between 11 and 30 years' experience and 73% holding a Level 6 qualification or above.

The findings reveal striking agreement about why play matters. Ninety-nine per cent of respondents agreed that play develops children's social and emotional skills. Child agency also emerged as the defining marker of successful play, identified by 83 of the 88 participants and accounting for 29% of all coded appearances within the study.

However, the researchers identified a significant gap between professional understanding of play and the conditions in which professionals are expected to put that knowledge into practice.

Curriculum pressure emerged as a dominant barrier, alongside concerns about workforce knowledge and stability, resources and funding, and wider misunderstanding of play. The research also found that the role of the adult remained more contested, particularly around the balance between supporting children's play and knowing when to step back.
Dr Aaron Bradbury, Principal Lecturer in the Institute of Education Children and Youth at Nottingham Trent University, said:

“The message from this research is not that we need to convince early childhood professionals that play matters. They already know that. What they are telling us is that the systems surrounding them do not always provide the conditions in which that knowledge can be put into practice.

For me, this is where the conversation about play now needs to go. We need to look seriously at curriculum pressures, workforce stability, professional trust, time and space. If we have high expectations for children, we must also have high expectations of the conditions we create around them.

Play should not have to continually justify its place in childhood. The challenge now is whether policy and practice are prepared to protect it.”

The research also found that professional understanding of play is shaped strongly through practitioners' direct experiences with children. Ninety-eight per cent of respondents said observing children at play shaped their professional understanding, compared with 83% for professional training and 61% for the curriculum within which they worked.

Philippa Thompson, Senior Lecturer in the Nottingham Institute of Education Children and Youth at Nottingham Trent University, said:

“What struck me throughout the research was the depth of professional knowledge within the responses. These are experienced professionals who understand children, recognise the complexity of play and can articulate what meaningful play looks and feels like.

Observation emerged as particularly important. Watching, listening and knowing children are not passive acts; they are fundamental aspects of skilled early childhood pedagogy. Our participants repeatedly described adults making careful professional judgements about when to become involved, when to offer something more and when the most appropriate response is simply to allow the play to continue.

We need to value that professional knowledge and create the conditions in which practitioners have the confidence, time and autonomy to use it.”

The study found a particularly interesting distinction between adults understanding play and adults directing it. While 81% of respondents rated an adult's understanding and valuing of play as one of the most important conditions for successful play, adult involvement and facilitation was rated as most important by just 25%.

Examples provided by participants showed children sustaining and developing their play over extended periods, sometimes returning to ideas across days or weeks. Across these accounts, adults remained attentive but made deliberate decisions about when their involvement would enhance children's experiences and when it might interrupt them.

The report argues that this should not be interpreted as adults “doing less”. Instead, observing, listening and responding sensitively require substantial professional knowledge. The researchers describe successful practice as adults knowing “when to watch, when to wait, and when to respond”.

Calls for change

The report sets out three commitments for change.

The first calls for investment in professional knowledge and culture, including addressing pay and contractual stability, strengthening continuing professional development and developing professional learning communities.

The second focuses on structural conditions and calls for assessment measures which reduce play to a compliance activity to be removed or substantially revised. It also recommends extending play entitlement beyond the EYFS into Key Stage One and ensuring that inspection recognises child-led practice and practitioners' depth of knowledge as evidence of quality.

The third calls for greater shared understanding of play beyond the early childhood and playwork professions, including strengthening the evidence base for play within professional education and developing accessible resources for families in partnership with settings.

The researchers argue that the findings shift the debate away from whether play is valuable and towards the conditions required to protect it.

As the report concludes: “The question of whether play matters has been answered. The systems question has not.”

Read the full report here.