NAHPS exists to promote the well being of children who are patients of the hospital, through the provision of high quality play services. High standards in hospital play services depend almost entirely on the quality of the staff employed to provide them. The first hospital play specialists were employed in the NHS in 1957 and their contribution has always been highly valued by paediatric medical and nursing staff, as well as the children and their families. However, despite the existence of research which validates the clinical value of hospital play services, numerous Department of Health and Royal College reports recommending the employment of hospital play specialists, the individuals working in the profession have been treated very poorly in terms of pay and conditions.

Negotiations with the Department of Health to secure a national pay scale for qualified hospital play specialists under Whitely failed in 1992 due to political opposition to increasing the role and size of the Whitely Council. Instead a DoH Management Executive letter was written recommending that Trusts draw hospital play staff into a single coherent group and that they use the NAHPS recommended pay scale. Today hospital play specialists are paid on a confusing variety of scales and are largely under paid for the responsibility they carry and the knowledge and skills they contribute.

Agenda for Change is about to change this. For the past two years, NAHPS have been working very closely with Unison and the Department of Health to ensure that hospital play specialists have a set of National Job Profiles that reflect the scope of the work we do and ensure a standardisation of pay scales across the country.

In 2002, the NAHPS Executive Committee met with UNISON officers to request that a set of job profiles be drawn up for our profession. From this meeting, it was evident that a great deal of work was to be involved on the road to achieving the goal of producing a ‘job family’ for hospital play specialists (HPS).

Work began on a set of job descriptions and person specifications that would, for the first time, not only outline all the skills and responsibilities of the HPS, but also provide a clear career progression. The set includes a Play Assistant, Hospital Play Specialist, HPS Senior II, HPS Senior I. Work on the Consultant/ Manager level job description is ongoing, but the Agenda for Change process halted this part of the work as other pieces of work took precedence at this time. The above job descriptions were written using the UNISON template and are on this website. They enable the HPS to up- date their own job description in line with the advice put out by Unison.

In June 2004, J.A.Q.’s (Job Analysis Questionnaires) were filled out by practising hospital play specialists at a large District General Hospital and early implementer sites and these, along with the job descriptions, were submitted to the Agenda for Change Profiling Committee. As a result, they drew up 3 draft job profiles; a Play Specialist, Play Specialist Team Leader, and Play Specialist Manager.

We were invited to comment on these drafts at a meeting with UNISON in August 2004. This meeting enabled a set of comments to be put together, setting out the desired outcomes for our profession. In order to back this up we provided JAQ’s for potential band 7 profiles (One clinical specialist, one manager), evidence of care plan development and design information, edited versions of the original draft profiles, a covering letter setting out the main concerns for the profession and the desired outcome, and evidence of our knowledge base and standard of training,

From all of this, the Profiling Committee produced the profiles, which are available at www.dh.gov.uk; a play specialist (Band 4), a play specialist higher level/ team leader (Band 5), a play specialist manager (Band 6). The first thing you will notice is that there is no play assistant profile. Our entry level is Band 4 and this covers play assistants. This is because our training is not degree level or equivalent. There is, as yet, no Band 7 and we have asked the Profiling Committee to remedy this as soon as possible. More will be said about this on page - ‘Agenda for Change- Advice’

It is now VITAL that you read the page entitled ‘Agenda for Change- Advice for Hospital Play Specialists’ and the advice contained therein. It will help you locally to ensure that you are placed on the correct banding for your post. There are some key issues and tasks that you need to be aware of before you go to job matching.

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