...and this week is when we celebrate the importance of play in hospitals, hospices and many other health settings. There'll be lots of fun activities with a deeper purpose of making sure that children's fierce need to play is protected and provided for throughout the healthcare system.
Our report this year “Prioritising Play in Healthcare in areas of Deprivation” builds on existing evidence about the paucity of play provision and the impact on children’s mental health and wellbeing. It demonstrates that children experiencing deprivation are disproportionately represented in hospital.
It also shows that healthcare-related trauma disproportionately affects children experiencing deprivation because even before they go to hospital, they may already be experiencing poorer physical and mental health.
Because of patchy play provision in the NHS – 76% of Trusts have no budget for play - families need to be more self-reliant bringing their own resources for play into hospitals. This isn’t always an option for low- income families who are less able to provide the toys and games that children need. These health inequalities are avoidable and unfair. Play is essential for children’s development and all children have a right to play.
Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, says that “The NHS is broken”. From what I experience of the people in the NHS, I’m not sure I agree with him.
But I think that there are decisions that can be made to save NHS resources now and in the future and that work towards resolving some health inequalities. It starts with putting children and play central to our healthcare system.
Daily opportunities to play can take away the anxiety of illness, reduce the loneliness and isolation of being in hospital, and help children to take seemingly overwhelming challenges in their stride.
We know that play isn’t just toys and bubbles, it involves qualified and experienced professionals who enable shorter procedures and reduced needs for sedation and even repeat appointments.
Traumatic experiences of healthcare in childhood also carry a cost burden into the future. We estimate there are 4 million adults in the UK living with mental health issues including long-term post-traumatic stress disorders as a result of their childhood experiences. This fear has a cost to the NHS. For example, of the 122 million NHS appointments booked in 2021/22, around 6.4% were missed which is around 7.8 million appointments a year. Prevention is always better than cure, improving our experiences of healthcare in childhood creates a life-long improvement in our relationship with healthcare.
We will relentlessly work towards ensuring that children’s needs are at the heart of the healthcare system. If we want to have the healthiest generation of children ever - the ambition of the current Government - we need to think about health in the broadest sense to include mental health and wellbeing, not just healthcare. Children’s right to play needs to be protected in the healthcare system and properly provided for with budgets for play – more play professionals and play resources.
We need you to support the growing momentum we are creating so children can live every day even when they are sick. Sign up for our campaigns and please, when you can, help us to provide the resources that children need in hospitals and hospices across the UK right now by making a donation.
Play in Healthcare Week is led by the Society of Health Play Specialists (SoHPS).