Leeds is hosting its first ever festival of play and creativity. Drs Ali Long and Mike Wragg from Leeds Beckett University’s playwork and childhood development course outline why its important, what it means for the sector and the movers and the shakers to come in future episodes.

Alexandra Long

Leeds Beckett University and the play work programme here has been part and parcel of the family can play across the city for 35 years. This week we have the opportunity to talk to some of the other movers and shakers on the play field and in the play sector, and we're going to be introducing you to a range of people who behind the scenes, make a big difference for the lives of children across the city.

Hello, welcome to our very first episode of the Playfest podcast. My name is Ali. I'm course director for the childhood development and play work programme here at Leeds Beckett University and I'm here with my colleague Mike.

Michael Wragg

Hello, Ali. Thank you for having me. Yeah. My name is Mike Wragg. I am a colleague of yours, as you know, and senior lecturer on the childhood development and playwork course here at Leeds Beckett University and really looking forward to talking all things play fest. What have you got to tell me?

Alexandra Long

Well. We've come together today really to start to celebrate play in Leeds. Playfest is the first event that we've had bringing together partners from right across the city. To really celebrate, promote, advocate for children's play. It's a really exciting time. There's so much energy around this subject at the moment that we felt it was a really nice opportunity to just come together and meet and talk to our colleagues about what's going on

Michael Wragg

Fabulous. And what's the what's the role of our course and our students in all this?

Alexandra Long

Well, we've existed for 35 years, believe it or not, .

Michael Wragg

Crikey.

Alexandra Long

35 years of play work here at leeds Beckett University. It's been a very long time since we've seen such passion. Enthusiasm, commitment, energy around the subject of play, and I think it's really exciting for our amazing city. It's really exciting for the play agenda for our student population, for our colleagues out there doing the graft on the ground it’s really exciting, really exciting. Tell you.

Michael Wragg

Times. Yeah, we had an excellent evening actually with the students a couple of weeks ago, helping out with the planning and preparation for this and they had a great time down at Kirkstall working with our partners as you say. So we're really looking forward to the event. Should be great.

Alexandra Long

Yeah, absolutely. So the reason why we're having this podcast is...there's lots of reasons, but we're across the series of podcast episodes, we're going to talk to lots of... it sounds cheesy to say, but like proper movers and shakers in the world of play across the city. We're going to talk to our colleagues who are completely integral to the development of this the planning of it, the the amazing bringing together of people, really like-minded people, passionate people, people who are giving up their time, their effort, their energy. And we're going talk to people who are doing fabulous work across the voluntary sector health sector and so on, and I think this is just a really nice opportunity for us to showcase some of the amazing work that's happening in Leeds.

Michael Wragg

Yeah, totally. And it's such great fun to be working with people, like you say, like minded. And it doesn't feel like you're volunteering your time, really, does it? It feels like you're doing something that you? Really wanna do? So yeah, yeah, that's great.

Alexandra Long

It does. It's great. It's really great stuff. So our students have been getting excited this morning. I've been teaching actually this morning and they're all really excited because next week they're doing some volunteering throughout playfest. And they are working to support the play information hub that's going to be down in Victoria Gardens and it just gives them a really good authentic opportunity to meet our sector, meet and build networks and create links with fabulous, just fabulous people who are really doing some amazing work across the city.

WHy is play so important to leeds, Mike?

Michael Wragg

Well, as far as I'm concerned, leeds is the best place in the world anyone could wish to live and making it any more playful, any more creative, any more vibrant than it already is, is only going to enhance what's already so wonderful about the place. I think I can speak for you in saying that we're both very strong advocates of the city of our birth, and we're very fortunate to be still working here and doing such great things. So any of those contributions to what's going on in the city and it feels like in recent decades, it's become such a wonderful place to live. And I've brought up two children in Leeds over the course of that time.

Alexandra Long

Yes indeed.

Michael Wragg

They've certainly loved living here. Season ticket holders in the kop, elland road.

Alexandra Long

I must admit, I think living and working in Leeds and being particularly clued up on this whole plaything, this is the first time we've seen significant progress with this agenda. And I think when we speak to our colleagues as part of the podcast series, I think that will become really apparent. What actually all of their hard work is doing is lifting the profile of play for children across the city. Prioritising children's play is not something that people have done historically. And I think it's really brave for the local authority to take such action when it comes to children's play and the play agenda, and of course we're a bit long in the tooth now. Like, now aren’t we? as we've been around the play work field for. A long time.

Michael Wragg

Speak for yourself.

Alexandra Long But we've seen it ebb and flow. We've seen the peaks and the troughs and Leeds in particular seem to be as a city seems to be carving out a bit of a niche when it comes to this area and I think I made reference to the local authority... the other dayw e were back with the Play partnership. It's being chaired by Elected Members who are passionate and committed and know the importance and the value that play has to the political and social and economic agenda in Leeds and I think hopefully, when we speak to Jen as part of the podcast series that will become really apparent. Leeds has the all these aspirations to be a child-friendly city and I think for many years it's kind of been one of those...and that's not to diminish any of the work, but I think now we're beginning to see the real effect of that commitment to children's right to play. It was a real turning point for the city. It's wonderful, really centering children at the heart of the local authority. We are even seeing changes actually in the city.

Michael Wragg

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Alexandra Long

In in the way in which we provide for children in the city and the surrounding areas and it it's it is a really exciting time for us.

Speaker 3

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Michael Wragg

And as you say, none of this can happen without that partnership work. Bringing people in from all sectors of the city, other people that we'll be talking to over these series of podcasts, right? Is there more you can tell us about the guests that we're going to be having on?

Alexandra Long

Well, we've got some exciting people. The work that our sector is doing across the city is just amazing and fascinatingly interesting and the benefit of all that for our students, which is a bit of a selfish thing to focus on, I must admit, but it's our students gain so much from our sector. They go out on the placements, they meet these professional networks, they have experience of working in the community with children and families and schools and services and they and it’s those voluntary sector organisation, local authority bodies, groups, organisations that are really making a massive difference for children and families on the ground and of course, students get to benefit from all those experiences, which I find incredibly exciting. And I mean, we're forever grateful for the work that they do anyway, because we're all signed up to the right for children to play in in the city, but also the experiences that it offers our students. It's just, it's just immeasurable and it's just high quality.

Michael Wragg

Great stuff. Thanks, Ali. Yeah. And of course, none of this festival will be possible without all of that wonderful collaborative work featuring all of these partners across the city. Is there anything more you can tell us about?

Alexandra Long

Well, we get to meet the queen of all of that tomorrow in the next podcast episode. So the first episode after this one is with Emma Bearmen, and we're going to talk to Emma all about the whole playfest, her motivations, all the work that's gone into creating this celebration of playing creativity across the city. So the one thing I would say though is Emma, Emma is really committed to making Leeds as playful as possible for all the population, not just for children. Because of course, we know that it's not just children that play, and I certainly know of course, Mike, you've been involved in some work around that.

Michael Wragg

Yeah, I do think, yeah, play is something that we tend to think of as belonging to children, of course, rightly so. But I think we all enjoy the sensation of playing...we all know what it means to be having fun. And there is, of course a serious side to all of this as well because. colleagues and I here at the university have been recently involved in a research project, taking play and playfulness into care homes with people living with dementia, and we've been doing some fabulous things I really have to say. But just seeing the change in people's demeanour, mood simply by playing...it's difficult to explain because some of it jis just throwing balloons to each other, kicking over cardboard boxes, rolling balls at Skittles, such simple, straightforward things, yet have such a profound effect on people's lives. Genuinely, you know, and it's difficult to talk about without sounding as I'm overstating it and it's difficult to talk about it without without really showing what happens, you know, but I think that feeling that we all have of the importance of play and the feeling for some of those residents, families, parents, daughters, sorry of the residents themselves in particular, we're talking about just the way it's improved their lives, knowing that their relatives are happy and having fun. And it's something that we take for granted or underestimate. But the significance of just enjoying yourself any way that we can through playing, it's just profound. So yeah, not something just for children. And I believe that is an intention of of those involved in play fest that this is a celebration of play across the city not just in childhood. So I think we can all come along and enjoy ourselves.

Alexandra Long

Yes.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Alexandra Long

Excellent. Yeah.

Michael Wragg

Thank you.

Alexandra Long

Right. So that concludes Episode 1. A a bit of a brief introduction to what we're doing here and we look forward to meeting all of the rest of the guests, the movers and shakers from Leeds involved in play fest. Thanks for listening.

Michael Wragg

Thank you.