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'The Toolkit has enabled me to drive change' - Miriam, health play specialist

New tools are empowering health play professionals to develop and embed high-quality therapeutic play across paediatric services

In June 2025, after three years work, the Play Well Toolkit, we co-produced with NHS England, was published. The resource aims to promote and protect play for children in healthcare and contains guidelines for setting up and developing services, recommended standards and a checklist.  

Miriam Willats, one of two health play specialists at University Hospital Lewisham in south east London, who cover the Day Care Unit, Inpatient Ward, Out-Patients and A&E, alongside four play workers, tells us about the impact these resources are having on her team. (Banner image: Miriam plays with slime with a young patient)

How do you feel about having the Toolkit? 

When I first saw that Starlight and the NHS had shared the new Play Well Toolkit, I was genuinely excited! I printed everything out, read through it thoroughly, highlighted almost everything, shared it with the play team, ward managers, and matrons, and didn’t really stop talking about it! I think I was so enthusiastic because I knew it had the potential to transform play services and finally give a voice to so many health play specialists.   

When I first started in my role, I noticed several areas where I felt we could improve to ensure our play provision was not only good, but effective, therapeutic, and truly transformative for the hospital experience of children, young people, and their families. However, as a newly qualified health play specialist, I didn’t feel I had the voice or confidence to implement any changes. When the toolkit was released, I felt it gave me both the foundation and the momentum to share my ideas and advocate for improvement across our play services.   

I'm thrilled about the Toolkit because it means health play specialists have an opportunity to drive real change and promote the importance of play to all paediatric staff. I’m deeply passionate about my role and committed to making hospital a less daunting, more positive place for children and young people. My goal has always been to ensure every child who comes onto my ward has access to meaningful, therapeutic play and to demonstrate to staff that play is at the core of helping the children we care for.  

How have you been using the Toolkit in your job?  

I’ve been leading the assessment of our play service at Lewisham Hospital using the Play Well Toolkit. It’s been such a valuable resource in helping me look at how we deliver play across the hospital and identify what we’re doing well, where we can improve, and how to make our service even more effective.  

I started by using it to audit our four paediatric areas, assessing if and how we were meeting each standard and the guidelines. This gave me a clear picture of our strengths and where we needed to make changes. Once the audits were complete, I developed action plans for each area to outline what we needed to do to meet the standards consistently and to a higher level. I worked closely with one of the ward managers, and we met weekly to review progress, share ideas, and keep the project moving forward. After deciding what we could do to meet the standards, I worked with the play team, ward managers, and matrons to implement the changes and make progress where needed.  

Once we made all the changes and began working on meeting different guidelines, I re-audited each department to measure progress and see the impact of the improvements we’d made. The project took around two months, and we finished by presenting our findings, achievements, and next steps to the wider play team, ward managers, and matrons. (Image: Miriam is helping a child use Virtual Reality to distract him while he receives a weekly blood transfusion)

"It was great to see senior staff so engaged and supportive."

The feedback was really positive, and it was great to see senior staff so engaged and supportive of using the toolkit moving forward. When the interactive version of the Toolkit was launched, I transferred all of our information onto it so that we could track the progress more easily. I then completed another interactive Toolkit a few months later to compare results and evidence how much progress we’d made from when it first came out to now. This project is ongoing and some things we may not be able to achieve anytime soon, but we will continue to review and audit our play service and aim to have a high-quality service.  

How has this impacted your work?  

The Toolkit has had a huge impact on my work. It’s provided me with a clear framework to promote the importance of play, advocate for best practice, and highlight what high-quality play provision looks like in a healthcare setting. It’s also helped me to communicate the value of play to staff and management more effectively, showing that play is not just something nice while children are in hospital, but is actually an essential part of paediatric care and the recovery process.   

Having clear, evidence-based standards to refer to has strengthened my ability to lead change, and advocate for play across the hospital. The toolkit has given structure to our play service, helped us evidence our work, and provided a clear framework for continuous improvement. Most importantly, it’s helped strengthen the role of play across the hospital and ensure that children’s experiences are at the centre of everything we do.  (Image: Miriam with outpatients' health play worker Tiarna Moore)

We also created a play display that included our play promise, the role of play staff and the importance of play, and easy read prep books, photo journeys and social stories for various procedures so children can be prepared and supported to minimise anxiety.   

Our communications team created a play team page on the website and intranet, and we established our referral system. I reached out to our community team and our community nurses are now referring patients to us. We have invited volunteers to work in inpatients during the days that the play specialist isn’t there so that play is facilitated consistently. Our charity provided some lovely play tables for all cubicles so that any isolated patients have access to play away from their bed, and many other little changes as well as longer term projects. (Image: the page Lewisham Hospital created on its website)

Developing Confidence and Leadership Skills

Through this process, I’ve developed valuable professional skills, including leadership, auditing, teamwork, and communication. I’ve gained confidence in presenting my findings, leading meetings, and creating actionable plans for improvement. Most importantly, I’ve seen how these efforts have positively impacted children and young people. Our play provision is now more consistent, purposeful, and therapeutic, helping to make our children’s hospital experience less intimidating and more positive. 

Have senior managers been supportive of using the Toolkit to improve health play provision in your setting?  

 Yes, the senior managers and matrons have been incredibly supportive. When I first shared the guidelines with them, they were very positive and immediately recognised the value of the standards. The matron asked me to lead the assessment of our play services using the checklist, which she wanted to incorporate into our hospital’s play strategy and Standard Operational Procedure, as recommended in the standards. During this time, I worked closely with some ward managers, who encouraged me to make these meaningful changes and gave me the freedom to implement new initiatives.   

It’s been really encouraging to hear ward managers referencing Play Well in conversations and seeing the development of our play service become a team priority. I also worked with clinical governance who promoted our prep books.  The collective support from managers, matrons, communications, and other staff has shown how powerful the Toolkit can be in driving positive change. If the managers weren’t on board, I don’t think I’d have been able do as much as I have.  Working as a team with a shared desire to improve our play services and promote play across the hospital is essential. (Image: Miriam with Laura Crome, Matron , left and Susan Logan - Ward Sister, Daycare, right)

What do you hope for the future of your service and health play now these resources and guidance are available?  

Looking ahead, I hope that the Play Well Toolkit continues to be fully embedded into everyday practice across the hospital, not only within the play team, but among all paediatric staff. My goal is for play to be recognised and valued as a fundamental part of care, integrated into every child’s hospital journey, and supported at all levels of management. 

I would love to see our play service expand, with more qualified play specialists working across departments so we can consistently meet the standards and provide more specialised, therapeutic play opportunities. I also want to continue auditing and developing our service, collecting children’s feedback, and using that insight to make meaningful, patient-centred improvements. I think the Toolkit has the potential to drive significant change in hospitals across the country.  (Image: the health play team's preparation table)

Now I’d like to start focusing on how we as a play team can support children visiting areas where there isn’t a designated play specialist or children’s area, and how we can improve their experience so that every time a child visits hospital, they get to experience play.  

  • Miriam works on the Day Care Unit where children come in for ear, nose and throat procedures, general and orthopaeadic surgery, as well as blood transfusions, food challenges, blood tests under sedation, and various infusions and intravenous tests.  
    The children’s phlebotomy (blood testing) clinic is also on the ward which she supports. Sometimes she is called to other children’s areas if they need support or cover.