Alistair Strathern MP: ‘The power of play can transform children’s healthcare’

For so many children, going into hospital carries connotations of fear and a lack of autonomy, and even trauma that can carry through to adulthood. It can mean unfamiliar rooms, scary equipment, painful procedures, and adults using words that they neither understand nor are explained to them. With the right support, we can help make this experience less frightening, and play is one of the most effective and efficient ways to make that happen.

The argument for health play is increasingly being won. Across the NHS, more clinicians and leaders recognise that play is not an optional extra, but a vital part of good practice in children’s healthcare. The challenge now is making sure every child benefits from it, and that this happens consistently.

In 2025, Starlight, the UK’s leading charity transforming children’s healthcare through play, and NHS England jointly produced the Play Well Toolkit. Since the launch of this guide for healthcare professionals on how to design, plan, and deliver high-quality health play services, the government has committed to the adoption and implementation of the Toolkit across ICBs and NHS trusts by 2027. This is a hugely significant step in the right direction, and we now need this progress to continue.

We now need to see delivery. Starlight’s recent freedom of information research found that 80% of Integrated care boards (ICBs) are not yet committed to adopting the Toolkit, none has a dedicated health play budget, and only 5% include health play in their children and young people’s strategies. We can surely do better than this.

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It should be impossible to ignore the benefits. At University College London Hospitals, an MRI programme supported by a health play specialist enabled 38 out of 42 children aged four to eight to complete scans while awake, reducing waiting times for MRI scans under general anaesthetic by 24%. Elsewhere across the country, 3D scanner models, preparation sessions and distraction techniques have helped children cope with procedures that might otherwise have required clinical restraint, sedation or avoidable distress.

Few interventions can reduce trauma for children, improve outcomes, and save the NHS money, yet health play delivers on all three. That’s why last week in Westminster, I hosted a drop-in event alongside Starlight which brought together MPs, Peers, NHS leaders, clinicians, health play specialists, advocates, young people, and families to discuss how to make the government’s commitment a reality.

At the drop-in, Nailah (a member of Starlight’s youth panel) spoke powerfully about her experience of therapeutic play in healthcare. She said, “I grew up in hospital, I have had so many surgeries, and the play specialist really got me through it and supported me through all these difficult times”.

Powerful comments like these reiterated that no child should have to experience unnecessary fear or trauma as part of their healthcare. Every child should have access to care that recognises their right to play, their need to understand, and their ability to cope when they are properly supported.

None of us could fail to be moved by such testimony, and no policy-maker should fail to be moved by the evidence. Consistent access to play provision on the NHS can reduce trauma, improve outcomes, and ease pressures. There’s not a moment to lose in ensuring 2027 is the year we make this vision a reality.