Health play specialist

Being a health play specialist requires emotional resilience but can be extremely rewarding as you help to make children's hospital experiences as enjoyable as possible

As a health play specialist, you'll use therapeutic play techniques to help children understand their medical condition, treatment and its impact on their daily life.

You'll typically work in a hospital, hospice or clinic and will use play activities to build a relationship with children to help them prepare for operations or procedures and to understand what will happen. Your aim will be to limit their worries and anxiety in order to provide them with a positive experience.

Your work will be underpinned by a combination of theoretical knowledge and evidence-based practice, allowing you to plan, implement, review and evaluate therapeutic play programmes that provide emotional and developmental support to children (from birth) and young people.

You'll also provide support to parents, carers and the wider family, including siblings, and will offer advice on how they can use play to help their children make sense of what's happening to them.

Responsibilities

As a health play specialist you'll need to:

• create a welcoming, safe and caring environment that encourages children to take part in play activities
• act as an advocate for children and young people in their interactions with the healthcare team
• plan and implement a range of age-appropriate play, drama, art and craft activities for children and young people, both individually and in groups
• use play to help children and young people settle into life in hospital, to help them prepare for medical procedures and to help calm and distract them during these procedures, facilitating their consent and compliance
• use play to help children reach developmental targets, learn new skills and relearn skills they may have lost during their illness
• enable social interaction to help patients and their families to make friends and find support from others in the wards
• observe children playing either in a dedicated playroom, in the ward or at their bedside
• take individual referrals for children and families who are having difficulty coping with hospital admission and procedures or with transition to home-care or hospice
• carry out and document therapeutic assessments and monitor each child's progress or regression
• evaluate the effectiveness of the play interventions and review their programme of care accordingly
• share your assessments and observations with other members of the health team, including speech and language therapists, doctors, nurses and physiotherapists, to support their long-term care plan
• liaise with health play specialists in the community and in hospices to ensure continuity of play interventions
• support families under stress and advise them on how they can use play with their children to help them cope with their diagnosis and treatment
• promote the importance of play and awareness of children's emotional needs during their illness
• ensure all toys and other play facilities are cleaned, maintained and stored safely.

In senior roles, you may need to:

• oversee the planning, evaluation and audit of practice
• manage junior staff, such as health play assistants
• manage the department's budget, selecting and purchasing a range of appropriate toys for the ward/department
• supervise health play specialist students on placements.

Salary

• Salaries for health play assistants (a lower level than play specialists) working in the NHS range from £22,816 to £24,336 (Band 3 of the NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) Pay Rates).
• Once qualified as a health play specialist, you can earn between £25,147 and £27,596 (Band 4), rising to between £28,407 and £34,581 for more senior roles (Band 5).
• Team leads and professional leads can earn between £35,392 and £42,618 (Band 6). Salaries for play service managers and clinical specialists can be in excess of this.

Salaries and conditions for jobs outside the NHS may vary.

Figures are intended as a guide only.

Working hours

You'll usually work a 37.5 hour week. Some posts include evening, weekend and bank holiday working.

Part-time jobs are available.

What to expect

• You'll form part of a multidisciplinary team that includes doctors, nurses, psychologists, speech and language therapists, and occupational therapists.
• The health play specialism is a relatively small profession compared with other allied health professions and the job market reflects this. The majority of job opportunities are available in large towns and cities in the UK where there are children's hospitals or larger teaching hospitals with teams of more than 20 health play specialists. In smaller towns and rural areas, there may just be one or two posts in local hospitals.
• You'll need to be emotionally resilient as you'll be dealing with children in great distress and often great pain, as well as their families who may also be finding it difficult to cope. However, the job can be rewarding, as you'll create a safe and caring atmosphere for children and their families in hospital to make their experience as good as possible.
• The work can be quite physical as you'll need to arrange, move and put away play equipment.
• You may need to travel between hospital sites or when working in the community and doing home visits.

Qualifications

To become a health play specialist you'll need to have a healthcare play specialism foundation degree.

This is a two-year course and is currently available at:

• Cardiff & Vale College
• University Centre Leeds
• Nescot, Epsom
• North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College
• Solent University, Southampton

Courses combine theory with practice and you'll attend college typically one day a week, while developing the practical skills and knowledge in your hospital placement for the rest of the week.

To get a place on a course, you'll need:

• a Level 3 qualification (minimum) in childcare or a related field
• a minimum of two years' experience working with children (after gaining the Level 3 qualification)
• GCSE maths and English at grade 4 or above (or equivalent)
• evidence of current (or recent), regular and relevant employment in the sector - either paid or voluntary
• evidence of continuing professional development (CPD).

As part of the course, you're required to complete a 200-hour hospital/clinical placement, which you'll need to have pre-arranged before the course starts. You'll also need to have confirmation that a qualified and SHPS registered play specialist will act as your mentor and will support you throughout the programme. Contact course providers for full details on entry requirements.

You'll also need to undertake an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

It is also possible to complete a Level 5 health play specialist apprenticeship to become qualified, which is a work-based qualification.

Some people become a health play specialist as a second career, moving from areas such as education, nursing and social work.

Although not currently mandatory, most NHS employers regard Society of Health Play Specialists (SHPS) registration as an essential job requirement.

In some areas of the UK there is competition for jobs, while in others there are low numbers of registered practitioners and employers struggle to recruit suitably qualified staff. Most graduates do, however, find employment in a hospital or other relevant setting.

Skills

You'll need to have:

• the ability to build a rapport and develop relationships with children and their families
• empathy, patience and tact
• verbal and written communication skills, including skills in listening, observing, taking notes and record keeping
• teamworking skills and the ability to work as part of a large multidisciplinary team
• the ability to work independently and to prioritise your workload
• organisation skills to plan and deliver play activities
• general IT skills, including use of Word
• creativity, energy and enthusiasm
• cultural awareness and respect for the religious and cultural diversity of children and their families
• a flexible approach to work in order to adapt to children's different needs
• an understanding of confidentiality and safeguarding issues
• health, safety and risk awareness.

Employers may also require you to have a full driving licence if working in the community.

Work experience

Relevant work experience in childcare is essential. You'll need two years' experience working with children at level 3 before you can apply to train as a health play specialist. This can be either voluntary or paid.

Relevant experience can include employment as a health play assistant in a hospital or clinic, which is possible with a relevant childcare qualification at level 3. Alternatively work as a nursery nurse, teaching assistant, learning mentor or youth worker can also be useful.

A background in social work, teaching or children's nursing is helpful in developing your skills. Experience of working with children and young people in art, drama music or occupational therapy is also relevant.

If you're interested in the role and want to find out more, you could try and arrange some voluntary work in a hospital alongside a registered health play specialist or ask if you can work shadow them. This will help show your commitment to the work and give you an insight into the role.

Find out more about the different kinds of work experience and internships that are available.

Employers

Most health play specialists are employed by the NHS. You'll typically work in a hospital in any department that has children receiving treatment. You could be based in a large play department in a children's hospital. Here, there are opportunities to work on children's wards covering departments such as:

• adolescent health
• cardiac care
• day and short stay units
• general medicine
• infection, cancer and immunity (ICI)
• intensive care
• neonates
• outpatients
• pre-admissions
• radiology
• respiratory care
• surgery.

Alternatively, you could be based on the ward or department of a general hospital that admits children. In these cases you're likely to work in a smaller team in children's units, intensive care units, neonatal units or outpatient clinics.

There are also opportunities to work in private hospitals, hospices, community health teams and community paediatric teams, or even with children in their homes.

Look for job vacancies at:

• HealthJobsUK
• NHS Jobs
• NHS Scotland Recruitment

Although the correct title for a qualified and registered practitioner is registered health play specialist, some jobs may be advertised as 'play specialist' or 'hospital play specialist'.

You can also search for jobs on the websites of individual hospital trusts.

Professional development

Although registration with the Society of Health Play Specialists (SHPS) is currently voluntary, you're encouraged to register as this shows that you adhere to a code of professional conduct and are committed to continuing professional development (CPD).

CPD can include:

• getting involved with the activities of a professional body such as the National Association of Health Play Specialists (NAHPS)
• peer discussion
• attending and presenting at conferences
• undertaking research
• attending events and seminars
• reading journals and articles and reviewing books
• doing related voluntary work.

NAHPS runs a range of conferences and events for its members which provide the opportunity to develop your knowledge and professional practice, as well as to network with other professionals and find regional networking groups.

Your skills and knowledge will be enhanced through practice and team working in all areas of specialist health, for example oncology. Each area will cover many different diseases and treatment plans and you'll need to learn about how they impact on the child or young person's life and how best to meet their needs. You'll work with the multidisciplinary team and senior health colleagues to develop these skills and knowledge.

Once you have a minimum of two years' post-qualifying experience, you are eligible to train as a SHPS mentor for students.

Career prospects

Career progression is typically based on gaining experience and carrying out CPD, although you can choose to pursue management or leadership training.

With experience, you can progress to a senior health play specialist role and then on to more senior positions such as team leader and then play service manager. You'll need to be flexible in terms of where you work as you may need to change settings to take advantage of promotion opportunities.

As you gain seniority, you're likely to have more involvement in strategic planning for the whole department and have responsibility for managing staff and budgets.

With experience and further training, there are some opportunities to move into lecturing or teaching. You could also apply to train in a related role such as a nurse, occupational therapist or speech and language therapist.