Hi Ruth

I'm really so glad you are interested in the area of hospital play and that you found all my answers interesting. I would be happy to email you a copy of my form for individual play programmes, but every play specialist in different hospitals may design them slightly differently depending on the sort of conditions their ward treats and how long their children are likely to stay as an in-patient.

What would be really useful is to encourage childares and playworkers to enpower their settings parents with much more information about the play specialist role so that parents can better access play services for their children when either visiting or staying in hospital. Maybe with a leaflet that could be given to parents or a parents board on the subject.

It would also be really useful if childcarers and playworkers worked in partnership with play specialists a bit more. Playworkers and childcarers are the people who see children on a regular basis, know the child and get to talk to on a one to one. If a child seems worried about a issue relating to attending or going in to hospital, maybe they could (with the parents permission of course) share this with the play specialist at that paticular hospital. This way the play specialist can then make up an individual play programme for that child's play needs and psychosocial needs and put aside more time to work with that child.

Just a thought but I recently have written a case study about role as a play specialist for the Skils Active Careers website which would give a much more detailed view of what I do. Also people can visit the following websites for more information:

National Association of Hospital Play Staff www.nahps.org.uk
Hospital Play Staff Education Trust www.hpset.org.uk

But please do ask as many more questions as you like

hattyhar