The importance of play at Sheffield Children’s

Play is part of our DNA at Sheffield Children’s Foundation Trust and we were delighted to recently welcome Paul Lindley OBE and Anne Longfield CBE to Sheffield Children’s to share more about why play is a crucial part of the way we provide outstanding care for children and young people.

Paul and Anne are working with the Centre for Young Lives on the Raising the Nation Play Commission and their visit was a unique opportunity to show play in action at Sheffield Children’s.

Embracing play is a shared responsibility for everyone across Sheffield Children’s and throughout our history our dedicated team of play specialists have worked alongside colleagues to provide the very best care possible for children and young people – and have some fun along the way!

As well as facilitating fun and helping improve experiences with care, play at Sheffield Children’s is an important way to help children and young people their build confidence and skills, fuel imagination and creativity, and to experience joy and special moments in circumstances that can be incredibly challenging.

Play has been built into the very fabric of our hospital building through a bespoke multi-coloured floor to ceiling play tower where children and families spend lots of time with building blocks, painting, and creating imaginary worlds.

In rooms where patients are too unwell to leave their beds, play specialists can often be found on the portable games console, and state of the art VR headsets, which are used for distraction during routine checks and procedures.

Before patients go into theatres our play specialists are on hand with their box of tricks to help ease anxiety around local and general anaesthetic, making sure children feel calm and distracted before their surgery. In some cases, specialised play support can even reduce the need for sedation and other types of medication during treatment.

For some children, just coming into Sheffield Children’s can be a daunting prospect and play can help create bespoke experiences for individuals that makes care possible. This can involve working with our Learning Disability Lead Nurse to organise visiting in quieter times and waiting for appointments in special sensory rooms which have soothing and relaxing lighting, furnishings and toys.

There’s lots more that happens too – from themed activities in Outpatient waiting areas to developmental play for babies experiencing long-term stays in hospital, and palliative support for children and families in hospital and in the community.

Underpinning all these experiences at Sheffield Children’s is a firm belief that play is crucial to children’s health and wellbeing, especially in healthcare settings where play can help give children their sense of control and autonomy back, which is often lost through illness.

The visit was a great chance to share more about our work with Paul and Anne and celebrate the many teams and individuals who make Sheffield Children’s the playful place it is.

Thank you to Poppy Koronka from The Times for joining us and sharing more about the visit.