Spaces for Children and Young People to Play and Hang Out
Project Report
April 2026
This report reflects on recent research which brought together community and academic partners to explore issues of neighbourhood play and of play and youth sufficiency in Jarrow. The research started as a collaboration between Professor Alison Stenning and Paula Turner, a community artist, at Dunn St Primary School, with the active support of then executive head Alison Burden and other school staff. As the project developed, it drew in additional team members: Michelle Trotter (Dunn St Primary), Gemma Lockyer Turnbull (NE Youth), Gerard New (Tyneside Outdoors), and Jackie Boldon (independent play consultant and campaigner).
Jarrow was recently allocated £20m over 10 years from the Pride in Place programme (initially as part of the Long-Term Plan for Towns in October 2023). Jarrow Forward, the ‘Town Board’ established to manage this programme, highlighted the need for better youth and recreational provision in its earliest documents. This created an opportunity to engage decision-makers and connect provision for play and youth to wider policy debates, including poverty, inequality, health and wellbeing, physical activity, and care.
Most Play Sufficiency Assessments (PSAs) are carried out by local authorities. Such assessments generally involve a holistic review of local authority services and provision, in the context of research focused on children’s and families’ experiences of space to play.
This project was undertaken by academic and independent researchers and practitioners. Apart from as interviewees and interlocutors, local authority officers were not involved in devising or carrying out this research. As a result, this report is not a standard Play Sufficiency Assessment, but reflects detailed, rigorous research into key aspects of landscapes for play and hanging out in Jarrow, focused on qualitative, ethnographic, participatory, and observational work. It could form the foundation of, or sit alongside, a fuller Play Sufficiency Assessment.