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Rethinking childhood

This website is managed by Tim Gill and is a holding page.

About Tim Gill

Tim is one of the UK's leading thinkers on childhood and an effective advocate for change. His work focuses on children's play and free time.

Tim's book No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society was published by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 2007 (see below). He has had articles published by the Guardian, the Independent, the Ecologist, parenting magazines, Nursery World and academic journals, and appears regularly on radio and television. He is on the international advisory board for Children's Geographies.

Tim advised the Conservative Party on its Childhood Review, and contributed to a seminar and monograph on the same theme, organised by the Smith Institute. His consultancy clients include Barnardo’s, the Forestry Commission, Groundwork UK and the Mayor of London. He is an enabler for the Commission on Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and is advising Argent plc on Kings Cross Central, one of London's largest and most significant new developments.

Tim was Director of the Children's Play Council (now Play England) from 1997 to 2004. He led the first government-sponsored UK-wide review of children's play under the chairmanship of the Rt Hon Frank Dobson MP. This review shaped the Big Lottery Fund's GBP 155 million Children’s Play Initiative.

Tim believes that children have the potential to be more resilient, capable, creative and able to learn than we give them credit for. Yet their lives are becoming ever more scheduled, controlled and directed.

If children and young people are to enjoy and make the most of their lives, we need to revisit and revise our ideas of what a good childhood looks and feels like. We need to improve play and recreational spaces and services, and make neighbourhoods and communities more child-friendly. We need to ensure that children in schools, nurseries and childcare settings have some time and space to call their own. We need to support parents so they feel able to give their children back some of the freedoms that they enjoyed when they were young. Perhaps most important of all, we need to accept that it is natural and healthy for children to explore, take risks, make mistakes, seek out adventure and test boundaries.

Tim lives in East London with his partner and their ten-year-old daughter. As a parent, he is trying hard to practice what he preaches.

NEWS

17 July 2008: Tim's 2007 RSA lecture to be broadcast on Teachers' TV
The digital and online channel Teachers' TV will broadcast the talk on Risk and Childhood Tim gave on 21 February 2007at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). First transmission is on 17 July at 23:15 with many repeats in subsequent weeks. Teachers' TV is available free-to-air via cable, satellite and Freeview, and programmes can also be streamed or downloaded free of charge after first transmission.

Selected forthcoming speaking engagements
Contact Tim for more information.

13 September London (Early Years 2008)
18 October Auckland, New Zealand
21 October Auckland, New Zealand
24 October Adelaide, Australia
27 October Melbourne, Australia
30 October
Perth, Australia
3 - 5 November Child in the City, Rotterdam

BOOKS

No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society (2007)
Published by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Reprinted - initial print run sold out.
Publisher's web page for information, book ordering, downloads (the full publication is available as a pdf) and selected media coverage.

"Compelling. I read it in one sitting and continue to reflect on and share its contents. Of particular note is Gill’s emphasis on redirecting societal energies from regulating existing environments to developing child-friendly communities where children are free to explore and learn. The primary take-home message is the urgency for parents, teachers, and child advocates to develop a more balanced understanding of what childhood is all about."
Martha Driessnack, review in Children, Youth & Environments (Apr 08).

"A very welcome antidote to all the wild scaremongering about children’s lives. If we can harness this positive outlook not only to call for more challenging playgrounds and more childish rough-and-tumble, but also to challenge institutionalised suspicion and state-authorised scaremongering, then we really might free up our children’s lives and allow them both to enjoy themselves and to learn through living."
Helene Guldberg, review in Spiked online (14 Nov 07).

"A welcome blast of fresh air on a topic that is burdened by adult anxiety and confusion. Tim Gill takes a balanced approach to weighing up the genuine risks for children in our current society. He highlights the crucial goal - that childhood experiences have to lead into a competent adulthood."
Jennie Lindon, review in Nursery World (27 Nov 07).

"Reviews key aspects of modern risk aversion for children... Tim's timely book is a must for anyone lobbying for a more child-friendly public realm."
Alan Sutton, review in Play Today (Nov 07).

"A MUST READ for anyone working with or caring for children! Tim Gill’s controversial book provides a thought provoking and challenging read examining the impact of children’s lifestyles today on their futures."
Network of Community Activities, NSW, Australia (buy No Fear for AUD 35).

Buy No Fear for GBP 5.99 from Amazon.

Electronic Children: How children are responding to the information revolution (1996, editor)
Published by the National Children's Bureau, available from Amazon.

PROFILES, INTERVIEWS AND MEDIA APPEARANCES

In June 2008 Tim took part in a televised debate entitled A Revolution in Childhood. The programme was linked to the BBC's flagship child development series Child of our Time. It was broadcast on BBC 4 at 9 pm on 5 June. Programme details here; TV review in the Independent here.

'Fixing Humpty Dumpty' interview on Futurelab website (March 08).

Radio interview with Richard Aedy for the Australian ABC Radio National programme 'Life Matters' (Nov 07). Listen again or download audio file.

Interview with Decca Aitkenhead in the Guardian (Nov 07).

JOURNALISM

Tim contributes regularly to the Guardian's Comment is free website, where you can read his views on such issues as risk aversion, parents, early education, childhood in the UK, bullying, and vetting and child protection.

Launch of Government's national play strategy: read Tim's reactions here (Apr 08).

'We don't need no supervision' Ode Magazine (Jan 08)

'Cotton wool revolution' Guardian comment piece (Oct 07)

Ecologist magazine cover story on outdoor play (Sept 05)

An edited version was published in the Independent.

Guardian piece on nature play (Aug 05)

Guardian piece on children's moral development (April 05)

Guardian piece on the extinction of the outdoor child (Sept 04)

PUBLICATIONS, PAPERS AND REPORTS

Space-oriented Children's Policy: Creating Child-friendly Communities to Improve Children's Well-being

Paper in Children & Society 2008, vol 22 issue 2 (subscription needed, or email Tim for a copy). A shorter version of the paper in the Smith Institute monograph - see below.

Providing for Children and Young People's Play and Informal Recreation: Supplementary Planning Guidance to the London Plan

Planning standards for the Mayor of London, prepared with EDAW (2008).

Paper on children's well-being
Chapter in the monograph Advancing Opportunity: Children, rights and social justice published by the Smith Institute (Nov 07).

Can I Play Out? Lessons from London Play's Home Zones project

Evaluation report (Mar 07).

UK Policy on Children: Key themes and implications

Editorial paper for Children's Geographies, 2006 vol 4 issue 1 (co-author with Di McNeish: subscription needed).

Home zones in the UK: History, policy and impact on children and youth
Paper published in 2006 in Children, Youth and Environments. Available to download in English and Japanese (thanks to Kenta Kubo).

Growing Adventure: Final report to the Forestry Commission

Published by the Forestry Commission (2006).

Cycling and children and young people

Report published online by the National Children's Bureau (2005).

"A timely call to get active, get on your bike and get young people cycling… makes a clear case for encouraging more young people to cycle." Review in Young People Now magazine.
"The appendix on cycle helmets was the most even-handed presentation I have ever seen - a marvel of fairness packed into a very small number of pages." Jim Tubman, father of four and commuter cyclist, Calgary, Canada.

Play, child care and the road to adulthood

Paper in Children & Society 1999 vol 13 issue 1 (subscription needed).

Home zones

Paper in Children & Society 1997 vol 11 issue 4 (subscription needed).

CONTACT DETAILS

Tim [at] rethinkingchildhood [dot] com

Mobile: +44 (0)7754 502680

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