Creative Welfare Consultancy
Our Role
At PlayWell, we partner with leaders and teams to embed proactive welfare, safeguarding, wellbeing, and access into the heart of your organisation. By fostering open communication, collaboration, and mutual support, we help everyone thrive in a culture that truly prioritises people.
Our approach begins with a deep dive into your current practices—drawing on staff feedback, data, and best-practice insights to identify gaps and design tailored, evidence-based solutions. Whether improving day-to-day operations or supporting critical projects, we create workplaces that reduce stress, prevent burnout, and promote mental health.
Access and inclusion are at the centre of everything we do. From disability disclosure and accessibility planning to audience-facing inclusion and equitable team practices, we make sure every space, programme, and process is welcoming, inclusive, and fully accessible.
And it doesn’t stop there. Through ongoing training, interactive workshops, and strategic guidance, we help embed lasting cultural change, building resilient, inclusive, and sustainable systems that allow individuals and teams to reach their full potential.
How we do it
Led by our founder Lauren Silver, PlayWell has pioneered the role of a Welfare Consultant within the creative industries. We partner with senior managers and producers to help them meet their moral, legal, and organisational responsibilities, ensuring exceptional standards of care for their teams.
Our approach is tailored and practical. We deliver organisation-wide welfare training, bespoke support informed by audits and reviews, and strategic guidance for lasting improvements. Detailed audits allow us to pinpoint specific challenges, so we can design solutions that strengthen both individual wellbeing and team dynamics.
Working with us minimises the impact of illness, stress, and burnout, creating supportive, nurturing workplaces where staff and freelancers can thrive, collaborate, and reach their full potential.
Why we do it
At PlayWell, we see preventative care as more than policies—it’s a strategic imperative for building positive, resilient working cultures. By addressing welfare proactively, we help individuals feel safe, respected, and heard, while creating environments where people can thrive. This approach nurtures creativity, experimentation, and boldness, recognising that care is a shared responsibility across the organisation.
Supported by Arts Council England and the Mayor’s Office at the Greater London Authority, we conducted research to explore the need for preventative care in the creative industries. Our findings show that stressful working conditions—rushed timelines, delayed pay, precarious contracts, and systemic abuses of power—negatively affect mental health. While these challenges are widely acknowledged, many organisations still struggle to take meaningful action.
PlayWell bridges this gap. We help organisations turn awareness into action, embedding systems and practices that protect people, foster wellbeing, and create workplaces where everyone can flourish.”
Read more in our report below:
Case Study: Welfare Department at Pleasance Theatre
Since 2022, PlayWell has partnered with Pleasance Theatre Trust to deliver the Welfare Support Programme at the Edinburgh Fringe. This pioneering initiative established the first dedicated Welfare Department at the festival, embedded at the heart of operations.
Led by founder Lauren Silver, the department supports over 2,500 participants annually, including artists, volunteers, producers, and staff. Services include free on-site and online counselling clinics, personalised welfare check-ins, safeguarding support, quiet and social spaces, and tailored sessions for non-white, trans, and non-binary participants. Participants also benefit from practical resources, exclusive discounts, and preventative care measures.
The programme has been transformative: participants report improved stress management, sustained energy, and stronger engagement. It sets a new standard for welfare in the arts, demonstrating the value of long-term, embedded mental health support.
Clients include
“Prevention in mental health aims to reduce the incidence, prevalence, and recurrence of mental health disorders and their associated disability. Preventive interventions are based on modifying risk exposure and strengthening the coping mechanisms of the individual.”
Mental Health Foundation: Prevention Review Paper
” By embedding preventative mental health care in workplace mental health models, employers have a significant opportunity to change the conversation.”
Forbes: Embedding Preventative Mental Health Care In The Workplace
“Preventative mental health care must be more than a set of initiatives; it must be considered as part of the overall organizational strategy. This includes a holistic approach to workforce wellbeing which begins with the management team and encompasses emotional, physical, social and financial wellbeing. The fact is, there is no health without mental health.”
Gareth Staglin: One Mind at Work
If you’re interested in how our Welfare Consultancy can help to support your organisation
Contact us
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