Hospital Play Specialist Assistant

We have an exciting opportunity to welcome an Assistant Hospital Play Specialist to join our established play service on the Paediatric Unit at Ormskirk Hospital.

As a team we strive to provide an excellent service, putting children and their families at the forefront of our care. Our Play Specialists are integral to supporting individual patient journeys and promoting the voice of the child during their time within the department.

To support our services, we are looking for a friendly and approachable Play Specialist who is flexible, proactive, motivated, and able to demonstrate excelled communication skills. You will be expected to work collaboratively and support other members of the children's nursing and medical teams and other disciplines to facilitate a seamless and high-quality service for the child and family.

Within the trust you will have the opportunity to work alongside many specialties as an active member of the multi-disciplinary team. Including Outpatient's clinic, Paediatric day surgery, Children's Community Nursing team and Diabetes team.

The Paediatric unit comprises of a 17 bedded inpatient ward with an additional 4 surgical day case beds and it has a 6 bedded Paediatric Assessment and Observation Unit attached. We also have a dedicated Paediatric Emergency Department situated a long side the Children's Ward. We see children/young people from the ages of 0-16 years with a range of varied conditions.

Main duties of the job

Mange and maintain a child focused environment where play occurds naturally at all times.

To assist the Hospital Play Specialist to implement therapeutic play interventions in hospital.

To promote an awareness of the importance of play within the multidisciplinary team.

The Secretary of State has approved the partnership between St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals and Southport & Ormskirk Hospitals.

From 1st July we have come together as a single organisation under the name Mersey & West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

The Trust delivers acute hospital care, intermediate care, community, and primary care services to a population of over 600,000 people with a combined workforce of around 9000 dedicated and skilled staff from 17 locations including Whiston, Southport & Formby, St Helens, Ormskirk and Newton hospitals.

The Trust provides regional services for burns, plastic surgery and spinal injuries to more than 4 million people across Mersey and West Lancashire, Cheshire, the Isle of Man and North Wales.

Our Vision is to deliver 5 Star Patient Care:

• CAREthat is evidence based, high quality and compassionate


• SAFETY that is of the highest standards


• COMMUNICATION that is open, inclusive and respectful


• SYSTEMS that are efficient, patient centred and reliable


• PATHWAYS that are best practice and embedded, but also respect the individual needs of patients


Our achievements include:

• Trust rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018


• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)


• Awarded National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for our Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme