Journal Article

8223 Supporting and developing the health play workforce across north thames paediatric network

O’Driscoll Tanya, O’Donnell Irene

2025

Overview

Why did you do this work?We undertook a prospective review of the current health play cover across different providers within the North Thames Paediatric Network (NTPN) to assess how the numbers and skill mix relate to the service being provided. We were interested in the wellbeing of staff in health play roles and in evaluating how the NTPN core team can contribute to this. With this data we aimed to develop a collaborative approach to supporting health play staff in developing their services and ensuring a combined voice for health play across the sector.What did you do?The NTPN carried out visits to the acute care providers (2023/24) to seek out areas of good practice and areas for development. Part of this review assessed the provision of play for children and young people, as well as the support and development in place for staff in these teams.Play staff and paediatric management teams were asked about the current level of play provision and the expectations of staff in terms of tasks and the number and acuity of areas needing to be covered. A survey was distributed by google forms to all play teams across the acute trusts to assess play staff views on the support they need. This was augmented with discussions with senior play team leads across the network as to current availability of training and support.What did you find?We found that there is significant variation in play provision across the different settings and also within wellbeing support and development available for staff. We identified that accessibility to further training post registration varies considerably dependent on the setting in which the post holder works, with established programmes being available within larger tertiary centres, and minimal availability to post holders in other providers.Having identified that provision of additional support for this group of staff as well as creating a shared ownership of play services is needed at a local level we facilitated a collaborative team day, bringing over 40 play staff from across different providers together with representatives of the play taskforce and the Society of Health Play Specialists. Issues raised centred around development of play staff and recognising current barriers to play provision, including recognition of the role, and the ability of teams to communicate between provider settings. The network will continue to facilitate communication through regular forums, facilitating accessibility to shared documents and highlighting the benefits of health play at all levels.What does it mean?Health Play staff now work in a variety of settings including acute trusts, tertiary centres, hospices, and community. Recent work1 has reviewed the health play workforce and generated recommendations at national level to support staff both in job titles, grading, and levels of responsibility, but additional local support will be needed to take this forward.Wellbeing of staff is pivotal to the development of health play teams and the NTPN will continue to work with providers to champion and facilitate this.ReferenceA Common Purpose. Report of the Taskforce on Children’s Play in Healthcare 2023.

• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subject: Acuity / Administrative Organization / Collaboration / Labor Force Development / Networks / Pediatrics / Staff Role / Teams / Training / Well Being