The Play Shed Newport Road, Stafford ST16 2EX

"Love taking my little girl here. It is always clean, and the staff are lovely."

"I would think twice about booking exclusive hire parties here on a Saturday at 5pm, the inexperienced and rude staff don't want you there, you are a massive inconvenience to them, they will not let you in until 5pm although you have been told by the manager that you can come in at 4:50pm to set up, they throw any excess food away that the children leave and do not offer it to the parents even though you are assured this will be done at time of booking, when you complain they then storm off and refuse to come out of the kitchen, shouting at you on the way too....it was laughable and embarrassing. The manager was very apologetic and did her utmost to recompense me when I spoke to her the following Monday. If you book a party ensure you have the owner there so you do not have the same experience that we had, it is a real shame for the owners are lovely and deserve to have staff that want to support the business and provide a nice experience for the children and parents."

"Superb value for keeping our toddler granddaughter occupied and happy for 2 hours. Adults go free! Well organised with toilets and hot and cold refreshments available."

"My children love it, especially having the under 3s area! it's always super clean and the staff are always super friendly"

"On our visit, found to be potentially unsafe for children aged 3 and under. We took my niece to the play area today and very quickly a group of 8 year olds attending a birthday party descended upon the UNDER 3s area. Wrestling, throwing balls and cubes and almost flattening our niece. When I asked the staff member who eventually met me to assist us, she informed me that there was nothing she could do to help and that there was no way to restrict the under 3s area from this party and very weakly asked the children to play carefully. She said she would send a member of staff to monitor this area and then quickly returned to the kitchen to hide away. At no point did any further staff approach the party leaders to ask them to calm their children down and have them stay away from the under 3s area. Later in our booking, the same manager referenced earlier did approach the under 3s area though this did not stem the stampede of older children. Thankfully a lunch break slowed the advances of other children long enough for us to enjoy our booking before we left. The rules, as pictured below require adults supervise their children and that staff will do also and assess height and age, though this wasn't to be seen during over an hour there. It is safe to say this establishment must train their employees to better utilise their paid time rather than congregating on a kitchen area and attend to the needs of their most vulnerable visitors. Otherwise, a vigorous overhaul of standard operating procedure, risk assessments and assessment of staff suitability is required. ---------------------UPDATE - 24 hours later. ----------------------- We received a call from the duty manager referenced above who was very eager to understand the shortcomings of the day and allow me the time to speak freely. She acknowledged my points and accepted them wholly, explaining a retraining regime that would be in effect to better focus the safeguarding elements required for the youngest children. Our niece has been offered a return visit to see this refocus of efforts in place which I am sure she will want to, and we look forward to removing this comment once we have experienced things as they should, and the manager has assured us they will be. Though our initial visit was a sour occasion, the promptness and genuine concern for our visit was taken seriously and treated with the dignity required. Other businesses may have taken a very defensive line on this so we are very happy with actions thus far."