Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to mark Play in Healthcare Week 2025.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We recognise the importance of supporting children's right to play as games and play help build social-skills and support children’s wellbeing. In October 2025, the Starlight Children's Foundation will mark Play in Healthcare Week, celebrating 50 years of play and highlighting its importance for children in healthcare settings. Together with NHS England, Starlight co-published the Play Well Toolkit, which is designed to help services enhance the quality of health play provision.

The Department remains supportive of the Starlight Foundation and NHS England’s work to champion that toolkit and promote child-centred care across healthcare settings and encourages work to publicise its use during this week.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps (a) his Department and (b) NHS England are taking to support the widest possible implementation of the Play Well Toolkit.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We recognise the importance of supporting and maintaining children’s right to play, as games and active play in all settings build social skills and support children’s wellbeing. The Play Well toolkit that was recently jointly launched by NHS England and the charity Starlight helps services to identify opportunities to improve health play services.

While funding decisions for health play services remain the responsibility of local commissioners, the Department remains supportive of NHS England’s work to continue to champion the toolkit and the importance of child-centred care across healthcare settings.

To support implementation, NHS England is promoting the Play Well toolkit to managers of health play services across a wide range of settings, including community clinics, emergency departments, children’s hospices, and acute paediatric wards.

A range of communication channels have been used to raise awareness, including engagement with services via professional bodies, messaging via the Chief Nursing Officer, and a forthcoming blog post and press release in partnership with Starlight. Starlight will be co-leading a webinar with NHS England this month to raise awareness of the toolkit.

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