healthcare

Every year, Play in Healthcare Week celebrates and highlights the importance of play in healthcare settings for babies, children and young people.

Play is more than a way to pass the time for children in hospital. It can help reduce anxiety, support communication, create connection, provide opportunities for choice and control, and help children cope with difficult experiences.

At Spread a Smile, we see this every day through music, magic, storytelling, art, therapy dog visits and child-led interactions. These interactions are play in action, helping children to cope and engage and creating space for childhood alongside treatment.

The Play Well Toolkit, developed by Starlight in partnership with NHS England and launched in May 2025, sets out the first national guidelines, standards and quality measures for health play services across England.

The toolkit recognises play as an essential part of children’s healthcare, highlighting its role in reducing anxiety, supporting emotional wellbeing, helping children cope with procedures and improving health outcomes. It calls for play to be embedded throughout the patient journey, with access to high-quality play opportunities and specialist support for every child who needs it.

At Spread a Smile, we are proud to help bring these principles to life every day through our regular hospital and virtual visits, creative sessions, art initiatives and family events. We work in partnership with 39 NHS hospitals, including 14 specialist children’s hospitals, supporting thousands of seriously ill children and young people every year with opportunities for play, creativity, distraction and social connection.

In doing so, we help children and young people feel less isolated, more empowered and better able to cope with the challenges of treatment, complementing the work of NHS play teams and supporting the toolkit’s vision of making healthcare environments more welcoming, child-friendly and emotionally supportive.

“Spread a Smile allows children to be children. You bring in the magic and wonder that enables families to make positive memories in what are, more often than not, life threatening situations for their children.” Mum

In our 2025 Healthcare Survey, 98% of parents and carers said that Spread a Smile’s visit improved their child’s hospital experience. 95% said that the visit had a positive impact on child’s mental health and emotional wellbeing.

These statistics speak for themselves and drive us in our aim to deliver regular weekly entertainment provision in all 28 dedicated specialist children’s hospitals across the UK by 2035. In doing so, we’ll be able to reach as many seriously ill children and young people as possible, helping to ensure that play is a visible and active part of healthcare.

We believe that every child deserves the opportunity to play, have fun and experience joy. With your support we can do just that.

Sign up to our e-newsletter to stay up to date with our work, the difference we make to the families we support and how you can get involved.