Playwork is not childcare with a different name, and a playworker job description that treats it as such will attract the wrong people. The distinction matters enough that it is worth getting right before you write the advert.
Below is a full playworker job description you can adapt, the person specification, and a plain explanation of how the role differs from a nursery practitioner or teaching assistant post.
What a playworker actually does
Playworkers support children, usually aged around four to twelve, to play freely in settings such as after-school clubs, breakfast clubs, holiday playschemes and adventure playgrounds. The job is governed by the Playwork Principles rather than the EYFS.
The core idea is that play is chosen, directed and motivated by the child, and that the adult’s role is to create the conditions for it rather than to lead it. A playworker sets up an environment, keeps it safe enough, and then largely gets out of the way. That is harder than it sounds, and it is the opposite instinct to most teaching and early years training.
In practice the job involves a lot of judgement: when to intervene and when not to, how much risk is worth the benefit, and how to support a child who is being excluded by other children without taking over the game.
Playworker job description template
Job title: Playworker
Reports to: Playleader, Club Manager or Senior Playworker
Hours: Commonly term-time, before and after school, with full days during school holidays
Purpose of the role
To create and maintain a safe, stimulating environment in which children can play freely, make their own choices and develop at their own pace, while safeguarding their welfare throughout.
Key responsibilities
- Set up and clear away the play environment, including resources for physical, creative, imaginative and quiet play.
- Support children to direct their own play, intervening only where necessary for safety or inclusion.
- Carry out risk-benefit assessments, balancing the developmental value of an activity against its hazards rather than removing risk entirely.
- Safeguard and promote the welfare of all children, reporting any concern to the designated safeguarding lead the same day.
- Supervise arrivals, departures and school collections, including accurate registers and handover to authorised adults only.
- Prepare and serve snacks or light meals in line with food hygiene and allergy requirements.
- Support children with additional needs to access play alongside their peers.
- Manage behaviour positively, using boundaries and restorative conversation rather than sanctions where possible.
- Build relationships with parents and carers at collection, and with school staff where the club operates on a school site.
- Complete accident, incident and attendance records accurately.
Person specification
Essential
- Experience of working with primary-aged children in a play, youth, sport or care setting.
- An understanding of why child-led play matters, and the self-restraint to allow it.
- Awareness of safeguarding responsibilities and willingness to complete training.
- An enhanced DBS check.
- Reliability at awkward hours, since the work is split shifts and school holidays.
Desirable
- Level 2 or Level 3 qualification in playwork, or a relevant childcare, youth work or teaching assistant qualification.
- Paediatric first aid certificate.
- Food hygiene certificate.
- Experience supporting children with SEND in an inclusive setting.
How playwork differs from nursery and school roles
This is where most adverts go wrong, and where candidates most often arrive expecting a different job.
- Against a nursery practitioner. A practitioner works to the EYFS with children under five, with a key person relationship, an observation and planning cycle and developmental records. A playworker works to the Playwork Principles with school-aged children, and does not plan outcomes for individual children in the same way. The paperwork is lighter; the judgement is heavier.
- Against a teaching assistant. A TA supports a curriculum someone else has set. A playworker deliberately has no curriculum. The measure of a good session is not what children learned but whether they were able to play.
- Against a sports coach. A coach directs an activity towards a skill. A playworker offers a football and accepts that the children may use it as a hat.
The practical consequence for recruitment is that strong nursery practitioners do not automatically make strong playworkers. The instinct to intervene, to extend learning and to tidy up mid-session is exactly what you need in a nursery room and exactly what gets in the way on a playground.
Be honest about the hours
Playwork is the hardest early-years-adjacent role to staff, and the reason is almost always the shape of the week rather than the work itself. A typical post is a breakfast session, a gap of six hours, then an after-school session, term-time only, with full days in the holidays.
Adverts that hide this get applications and then withdrawals. Adverts that state it plainly, and that explain who it suits, get fewer applications and more acceptances. It genuinely suits students, people studying alongside work, parents whose own children are at school, and people combining it with other sessional work. Say so.
Looking for playwork staff, or a playwork role?
Quint Education supplies playworkers and childcare practitioners to breakfast clubs, after-school clubs and holiday provision across London.
Frequently asked questions
What qualifications do you need to be a playworker?
Often none to start. Many settings recruit on attitude and experience with children, then support a Level 2 or Level 3 playwork qualification. An enhanced DBS check is required, and paediatric first aid and food hygiene are commonly expected or provided.
What is the difference between a playworker and a nursery practitioner?
A nursery practitioner works to the EYFS with children under five, including key person responsibilities and developmental records. A playworker supports school-aged children to play freely under the Playwork Principles, with no set curriculum and no individual learning plans.
What are the Playwork Principles?
A professionally endorsed set of principles that define playwork in the UK. They establish that play is freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated by the child, and that the playworker’s role is to support that process rather than to direct it.
What hours do playworkers usually work?
Most commonly split shifts around the school day, a breakfast club and an after-school club, term-time only, with longer days during school holidays. Some settings offer after-school hours only.
Is playwork a good route into early years or teaching?
It can be. It gives real experience with children, safeguarding training and a reference, and the hours fit around study. If the goal is a nursery role, be aware the practice is quite different and you will need to adjust.
Recruiting playworkers in London?
Quint Education places playworkers, play leaders and after-school club staff across London, alongside our nursery and early years work. Every candidate is DBS checked, referenced and interviewed before we put them forward, and we will tell you honestly whether someone suits a playwork setting or is better matched to a nursery room.
See how our agency works, or browse current vacancies across London. Preparing for an interview? Read our safeguarding interview questions guide.