Kinder has announced a two-year partnership with children’s charity Action for Children to support its work promoting play.

The chocolate brand known for including a surprise toy will support the charity’s play break clubs, which provide sessions for families in the community.

It will also support the supply of play boxes with activities for families as well as its play break areas, including sensory rooms and calm spaces that are particularly used by children with special educational needs.

“We know that play is an important part of supporting family bonding and our Kinder Play Breaks initiatives help to celebrate those quality moments together,” said Kinder UK marketing director Andrea Longobardi.

“The opportunity to work proudly in partnership with Action for Children to help more families experience those bonding moments through play is fantastic. Together, we are excited to help bring play back into homes and communities.”

The charity’s director of fundraising Katherine Woods added: “Play is more than just fun – it’s how children and their families build trust, strengthen relationships and grow in confidence together

“For many families, opportunities to play aren’t always easy to access and when life is increasingly busy or tough, it can be the first thing to slip away.

“That’s why we’re proud to be partnering with Kinder to help children and caregivers to connect, engage and grow together through play.

“Our new programme will help bring the importance of play into everyday life, so more families can experience connection, confidence and regular moments of joy."

To highlight the importance of play Kinder had published academic research that measured families’ heart rates during play. This shows that play creates “near-instant connection and bonding between parents and children”.

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