Blogs
The cancer plan is a big step forward for play in healthcare. Children now need action
The announcement of a new National Cancer Plan is a big moment for healthcare in England for many different reasons, and is being rightly applauded by cancer charities, researchers and healthcare professionals alike.
There is one part of the plan that will go unnoticed by many but could make a big difference to the care of babies, children and young people, for whom the disease is, tragically, increasingly prevalent. This is the commitment to ‘ensure uptake of the NHS England and Starlight Play Well toolkit’ by 2027.
The cancer plan says that ‘having things to do in hospital and therapeutic care, including play for children, are important to the emotional wellbeing of young cancer patients’. The toolkit itself says that ‘health play services help young people have a voice, feel safe, reduce anxiety, and improve outcomes … mitigating the risks of trauma and encouraging positive long-term engagement with healthcare staff and settings’.
A postcode lottery in health play services
However, as the plan also says, ‘services remain variable’. Our own research (Prioritising Play in Healthcare in areas of deprivation) reveals the stark reality of that variability, with children facing a postcode lottery on the quality and extent of support they receive from play professionals. Predictably, it is children already living with health inequalities who draw the shortest straws. Nationally, the overall capacity of health play services is far short of what is needed - Starlight: Reducing trauma in healthcare report. (Image: a health play professional supporting children in hospital)
The young cancer patient, Sophie Fairall (pictured with her mum - banner image), who tragically died of the illness aged only 10, left her mum Charlotte a ‘bucket-list’ of the things she believed should change in the way children with cancer are cared for. One of these was that health play specialists should be available 7-days a week for all the children who might need them. ‘You wouldn’t run a ward without a nurse’, said Sophie, ‘I don’t think you should run a ward without a play specialist’. Too many children on too many wards still go without.
The pledge to now drive uptake of the guidelines and standards for health play services is a big step forward, thanks in no small part to Sophie’s mum, Charlotte and the incredible charity Sophie's Legacy she set up in her daughter’s name. Charlotte was a key member of the childhood cancer taskforce that helped develop this plan.
We need a change in culture
We must now hope that the government’s commitment will be matched by resources. The thousands of new health play professionals needed to meet Sophie’s challenge cannot be created overnight. Neither can the change in culture and attitudes, which too often relegate play to a ‘nice-to-have’ optional extra, rather than an integral part of children’s care and treatment. (Image: health play staff at Northwick Park Hospital)
To make the Play Well promise a reality, we are now asking the government for a focused programme of work: to grow health play teams through a targeted workforce plan; to integrate play across paediatric services through multi-disciplinary training; to support play teams in adopting the new standards; and to review how services for children are commissioned and designed.
Taking our inspiration not just from the incredible Sophie, but from her mum Charlotte, and our own Sarah Owen – whose lived experiences as parents of children with cancer have made them such powerful advocates – we are also calling for more information for parents and carers on the importance of play for children when they are sick and facing treatment.
We warmly welcome the National Cancer Plan, just as we celebrated the publication of the Play Well Toolkit. But documents alone will not be enough. Children now need us to act.