Play Service Manager

Transformation Unit; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 46,000 - 54,000; Part time

Job summary

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Play Services Manager to lead a busy play service for children and young people. You will supervise staff, develop care pathways, and work across hospital settings to ensure a positive patient and family experience.

The role requires strong leadership, clinical play expertise, and the ability to mentor students while delivering high‑quality services. Part‑time 30 hours per week with rota patterns by appointment.

Qualifications

• Experience leading play services in a hospital setting.
• Knowledge of safeguarding and child protection guidelines.
• Ability to manage staff and lead service development.

Responsibilities

• Manage the Play Service staff and rota within the unit.
• Improve care pathways for children and families across hospital pathways.
• Act as an advanced practitioner in clinical play areas.
• Develop and evaluate play services and lead defined projects.
• Provide leadership and supervision to junior staff and students.
• Support paediatric play outside of core areas when needed.

Skills

Staff supervision

Clinical leadership

Play services management

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's in Health Care Play

CPD / training in play therapy

Job description

Main area Play Services Grade NHS AfC: Band 6 Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 30 hours per week (8am - 6pm) Job ref 391-NMUH-8084162

Employer Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site North Middlesex University Hospital Town London Salary £45,953 - £54,254 Per Annum (pro rata) including HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 20/10/2026 23:59

Play Service Manager

NHS AfC: Band 6

Our trust has over 17,000 staff serving 2 million patients every year. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, North Middlesex University Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients.

Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers’ money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation.

Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants.However, it’s important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey. Further guidance can be found in the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1 .

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.

If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate act ion where necessary.

We do not charge applicants any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including applications, interviews, sponsorship arrangements, pre-employment checks, or employment offers. All vacancies are advertised through TRAC/NHS Jobs and candidates are assessed solely on their skills, qualifications, experience, and suitability for the role. If you are asked to make a payment in connection with an NHS job opportunity, please treat this as suspicious and contact the organisation directly using the details published on our official career's website

We are seeking to appoint a dynamic and enthusiastic candidate to the role of Play Services Manager, based at our North Middlesex University Health Unit.

This role is offered at part-time working 30x hours per week with the rota pattern being agreed upon appointment.

The appointed candidate will provide a high-level play service to all areas within the Babies, Children's, & Young People division to ensure all visitors to our services have a positive experience. The postholder may be required to provide support to other Health Units in their role.

Please note:

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role.

Main duties of the job

The job purpose is:

• Be responsible for the management of staff within the Play Service.
• Take an active role in improving care pathways for patients and their families within their hospital journey.
• Work as an advanced practitioner in clinical areas.
• Participate in the assessment, planning, development and evaluation of play services within all areas where children and young people are seen, holding responsibility for service development and defined projects.
• Provide leadership to junior staff through role modelling, teaching and management.
• Supervise HPS and degree level students on practice placement as well as students from other members of the MDT.
• Provide complimentary support to children seen outside of paediatric setting and 16 - 17 yrs. old in Paediatric Emergency Department as required and or admitted onto the adult wards.
• Actively work to improve the safety and quality of services for children, contributing to safeguarding and sourcing funds for environmental improvements and building partnerships with external funders.

Working for our organisation

North Mid is part of North Central London integrated care system - consisting of the NHS and Local authority organisations in Camden, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. As with other ICSl’s, we are working increasingly closely with partners and indeed many of our financial and performance objectives are measured at this system level. Whilst all organisations remain as standalone, statutory bodies we have an ICS infrastructure for making shared decisions and agreeing shared approaches.

We are proud of our staff and want to ensure their training allows them to provide excellent clinical care. We are also a training unit for medical students from UCL and St George’s University Grenada, and for nursing and midwifery students from Middlesex and City Universities.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

A full list of duties and responsibilities will be found within the job description and requirements for the role can be found within the person specification.

Person specification

Knowledge & Qualifications

• Registered & qualified Health Play Specialist holding the Foundation Degree in Health Care Play Specialism or previous HPSC/HPSEB, Edexcel PDC/HND in Hospital Play Specialism or oversees equivalent.
• Further training in child protection.
• Management training modules
• Documented evidence of Continuing Professional Development For example; Counselling Skills certificate, Supervisory Skills Training, Presentation skills., Published articles, Conference Presentations
• Comprehensive knowledge and application of therapeutic assessments and interventions relevant to patient group and treatment plan.
• Specialist knowledge of the effects of hospitalisation, treatment and long term chronic and life‑threatening illness on children and young people and their families.
• Knowledge and awareness of the emotional and personal impact of the work and the ability to self‑manage or seek help appropriately.
• Detailed knowledge of current health legislation and NAHPS Guidelines for Professional Practice.
• Detailed knowledge of the principles and application of clinical governance.
• Bachelor’s Degree (or overseas equivalent) in a subject relevant to work with children and/or young people.
• Training in ;Guided Imagery, Adolescent Development, Teaching adults

Experience

• Extensive post qualifying, comprehensive experience of working with children and/or young people in a health care setting, in a variety of clinical areas and/or vast experience in specialised field, including individual and group work.
• Project leadership experience.
• Participation in recruitment and selection procedures
• Experience of audit procedures
• Experience of regularly supporting, teaching, training, assessing and supervising students and/or volunteers.
• Management of junior staff, undertaking annual appraisals and PDP.
• Participation in recruitment and selection procedures
• Experience of working with children and/or young people with special needs including those with challenging behaviours
• Able to communicate complex, information sensitively and effectively with patients, families and staff, in written, verbal and non‑verbal forms.
• Advanced theoretical understanding of and ability to manage & apply therapeutic play interventions for children and young people experiences difficulties during their
• Hospitalisation on specialised areas including preparation, distraction therapy and post procedural play.
• Supervision and training skills.
• Ability to provide clinical supervision to peer group.
• Ability to analyse professional and ethical issues, including professional boundaries, clinical governance.
• Word processing, Excel and internet search skills.
• Ability to build effective working relationships within multiple professional teams and across hospital locations.
• Ability to organise and respond efficiently to complex information and comprehend difficult technical and medical information
• Training and presentation skills.
• Counselling skills

Personal Qualities

• Enthusiastic and motivated.
• Good interpersonal skills.
• Professional approach to work.
• Accountability – Takes responsibility for own actions and promotes good team working.
• Openness – Shares information and good practice appropriately.
• Mutual respect – Treats others with courtesy and respect.

Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.

Please be advised that due to exceptionally high demand, all Royal Free accommodation is at full capacity and waiting lists are being held. Average waiting times are 12 months. Please do not rely on Trust accommodation when you commence your role and ensure you investigate alternative accommodation for your arrival.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

We reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once a sufficient number of applications have been received.