In the media

Delays in hospital discharge for children shine light on play services

Children are spending long periods of time in hospital, not because they need to, but because of a lack of social care placements or delays in setting up care packages. 

The report Children waiting to leave hospital, published today by the Children’s Commissioner, reveals the scale of discharge delays, which can lead to children staying in hospital for months, even years.

Starlight welcomes one of the key recommendations in the report that ‘NHS guidelines for commissioning and designing health play services must be implemented to embed play into children’s healthcare’.

 Published by NHS England and Starlight, the guidelines support healthcare leaders and clinical staff to make the NHS as welcoming and child-friendly as possible.

Children are removed from everything that is familiar to them in hospital – their home, routine, family, social and school networks. Children’s lives should not stop while they are receiving treatment or waiting to be discharged. Extended periods of hospitalisation can be lonely, depressing and traumatic making play more important than ever. Play is how children learn, communicate, build relationships and resilience. A child-friendly NHS must embed play to allow children to be children.

Laura Walsh, Director of Play at Starlight

Starlight’s Youth Panel, who have lived experience of healthcare, gave The office of the Children’s Commissioner advice on its findings and recommendations.