As a charity, we’re proud to be trailblazers in pushing for and funding new and better ways to make lives better for children with cancer. We’re especially proud of the commitment we’ve given to funding play for children. For over 25 years, we’ve funded additional play team roles in the children’s oncology department at Leeds Children’s Hospital. This is the only department in the hospital that has had this extended play provision which enables a 7-day-a-week play service. 8 years ago we also began funding an innovative outreach play specialist role, enabling the provision of dedicated play support to children with cancer both on the hospital wards and as outpatients at home.

Play is vital for children with cancer – it helps them find ways to understand and cope with their diagnosis, prepare for procedures that can be painful and upsetting, and support mental health during long stays in hospital away from home, school, family, and friends. We’ve ensured that children in the oncology department of Leeds Children’s Hospital have had access to play from specialist play workers through our funding, to provide an enhanced and 7-day-a-week service.  In addition to our own Family Support Workers, this has given children in the oncology department at Leeds Children’s Hospital access to a higher level of support than is usually seen in other children’s wards across the country.

We are delighted that the NHS has now recognised nationally the need for 7-day-a-week play service for children in hospital. At Leeds Children’s Hospital we are so pleased that the hospital, with support from Leeds Hospital Charity, will fund additional roles to provide a 7-day-a-week play service for children in all wards at the hospital. We’ve seen how important this has been for children in the oncology wards so are delighted that children in other wards will now receive better play support.

With the introduction of increased play across the whole hospital, this means we will now work alongside Leeds Hospital Charity to provide the play provision for children with cancer in hospital. The hospital charity will provide funding for the roles and will continue to fund the materials used for play, as well as supporting the décor and environment. We will continue to fund the outreach play specialists for children with cancer, providing this vital at-home play. The outreach play specialists work outside of the hospital, taking play to children’s homes who require support at home. This can be from helping children prepare for going into hospital for procedures, to supporting a child and their siblings when they have been given a palliative diagnosis. These vital roles are not funded by the NHS and provide a huge benefit for children and their families and we are incredibly proud to be a leading role in providing this type of play provision.

We are delighted to have led the way in how children can be better supported in hospitals with play, to see this extending to benefit all children at the hospital makes us so proud.