Building influence: Unlocking political and financial support for the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital
The East of England is currently the only region without a specialist children’s hospital, resulting in children and their families needing to travel hundreds of miles to receive treatment. Furthermore, existing services for mental and physical health can be fractured, with children facing long wait times.
The NHS survey of Mental Health of Young People in England 2023 showed that one in five children have a probable mental health disorder, a large increase from 2017 of one in eight children. The Children’s Commissioner for England recently published research showing that children waited an average of six months for mental health treatment, and a third waited over a year to receive support.
Cambridge Children’s Hospital (CCH) is a planned new specialist facility for children and young people across the East of England. The holistic approach of treating mental and physical healthcare together will be a world-first, along with a globally recognised research centre.
The challenge
The need for a new children’s hospital for the East of England was first identified in 2004 by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with the first Strategic Outline Case (SOC) completed in 2005. Twenty years and seven iterations of the SOC later, the Project Team now plan to submit their Full Business Case in 2026 to the Government, ahead of construction starting in 2027.
The project is now at a critical stage and closer than ever into turning the plans into reality. In addition to government and NHS funding, the new hospital requires £100 million of private funding raised through philanthropy, and while the halfway mark was reached in December 2023, there is still a significant amount of money to be raised.
Furthermore, the NHS is undergoing a rapid period of change. There have been wide-ranging reforms, including abolishing NHS England and thousands of job losses. Funding for many NHS infrastructure projects are currently on a knife-edge, with 18 of the 40 new hospitals planned as part of the New Hospital Programme delayed until after 2030.
However, there is great support for delivering a new model of care for the NHS, with the Government launching its 10 Year Health Plan in 2025. CCH vision of care closer to home, harnessing research innovations and using digital technology naturally aligns with the Plan’s ‘3 radical shifts’.
While CCH has generally benefited from positive political engagement, a dynamic geopolitical environment may mean that the Government’s attention is diverted abroad.
Whether the public or our elected representatives like it or not, celebrity involvement in political discourse can influence policy leading to societal change.
There is a real opportunity at this critical time before submitting the Full Business Case to further develop relationships with celebrities to garner political and fundraising support.
Ground breaking is a useful metaphor in the context of a large construction project. And your executive report appears ground breaking in the way it combines public information, celebrity engagement and fundraising in support of a new NHS hospital. It thus combines aspects of commercial comms, public sector and third sector comms. The treating of physical and mental ill health is also innovative. This is a genuinely interesting project and you are aware of the potential – and also some of the risks.