Health Play Specialist

Job Overview

Are you passionate about making hospital experiences less frightening for children and young people? We are looking for a compassionate, creative Health Play Specialist to join our Day Surgery team and help shape a truly child‑centred service.

Therapeutic play is recognised nationally as a vital part of children’s healthcare. NHS England’s Play Well guidelines show how play reduces anxiety, supports emotional safety and improves outcomes for children undergoing procedures. In Day Surgery, you will use your specialist skills to prepare children for their operation, reduce fear, and help them feel confident and in control.

You will work closely with families, offering reassurance and guidance at what can be an overwhelming time. You will also collaborate with nurses, anaesthetists and the wider team to ensure every young patient receives thoughtful, age‑appropriate support.

Advocacy such as Sophie’s Legacy has highlighted how powerful Play Specialists are during difficult and painful moments, and how essential consistent play support is for children in hospital. By joining us, you will be part of a Trust that values this work and is committed to expanding access to therapeutic play.

If you want to make a meaningful difference every day — helping children feel safe, supported and heard — we would love you to join us.

Main duties of the job

You will work within the Day Surgery Unit to implement safe, high quality play programmes covering all aspects of hospital play provision which meet patients emotional, social, developmental and creative needs.

You will respond to referrals from the multidisciplinary team to provide support for children and young people through play preparation and play programmes and support patients through procedures using therapeutic play and distraction therapies.

Working for our organisation

At the RUH we put people at the heart of what we do, working together as one team to make a difference for our patients, each other, and our community. No matter what your role is, we value everyone’s contribution in supporting the exceptional, person-centred care we pride ourselves on.

We are proud to be in the top 20 best hospitals to work for in the country.

We are committed to creating a compassionate and inclusive environment. This can be seen in our growing community of staff networks – celebrating successes and creating opportunities to listen and learn. We value our differences, champion kindness and civility, and truly believe that diversity makes us stronger.

A culture of learning, developing and innovating is the thread that runs throughout our whole organisation. We want to support you to thrive, taking your career to its full potential.

We value staff wellbeing, with a well-established programme of support. We believe in a holistic approach spanning all aspects of living a healthy life, including physical, emotional, spiritual and financial wellbeing. We’ve even got a pool!

We are committed to supporting you and hope you want to join our team. In the meantime, find out more about living and working the beautiful historic city of Bath, learn about our extensive package of staff benefits, and read about how we’re providing healthcare fit for the future with the landmark Dyson Cancer Centre and our passion for research.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Please refer to attached job description and person specification for further information about this opportunity.

Person specification

Essential

Essential criteria

Foundation Degree (FdA) in Healthcare Play specialism or equivalent Current HPSET registration Experience of working as a Health Play Specialist Experience of assessing patient needs to provide specialist play.

Desirable criteria

Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team, and communicating effectively with all levels Experience of liaising with clinical staff.

Essential

Essential criteria

Experience of working as a Health Play Specialist with children in a hospital setting Experience of assessing patients needs to provide specialise play, therapeutic distraction preparation and post procedural play. Excellent knowledge of child development

Please note - Due to recent changes in UK immigration and visa rules applicants who do not currently have the right to work in the UK may not be considered unless an alternative right to work solution can be provided. Candidates requiring sponsorship (or will need sponsorship at the end of a current visa e.g. those with graduate visa's) should review the eligibility criteria on the gov.uk website before applying: Prove your right to work to an employer: Overview - GOV.UK

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

Health Play Specialist Job description (PDF, 333.0KB) Join the RUH (PDF, 1.3MB)

Further details / informal visits contact

Name Sam Rye Job title Senior Sister Email address sam.rye@nhs.net Telephone number 01225821170