Clinical and research staff

The collaboration between staff across the three partner organisations is crucial to the success of the Cambridge Children’s Hospital project. We bring together the expertise and experience across the three disciplines of mental and physical health and research is embedded in our project culture and structure.

Over the years, staff have played an important role in shaping the hospital design to ensure it becomes a great place to work, as well as drawing on their professional expertise to inform the model of care.

User Group Meetings and Design Sprint 2026

Most recently, in Spring 2026, many staff were involved in User Group Meetings as part of the final stages of RIBA 3 in the architectural process. These focused all different areas of the new hospital to ensure the design works, in reality. The project and design team held 23 discipline specific workshops, including theatres, radiology, research, and PICU, which amounted to 50+ hours of engagement. Over 100 people were involved in scrutinising 48 sets of drawings and reviewing 1043 rooms and 43,000 items of equipment.

Later in the summer, the project team, clinicians, design and construction partners came together to do final quickfire reviews of 1,076 rooms. This was to make sure that everything was in the right place, everything needed in each room was there, and everything was safe and costed, from call bells to fire panels, toilets to highchairs. This work has ensured the designs are signed off and ready for the project’s Full Business Case submission.

Wider staff engagement

Our aim is to ensure all staff feel informed about Cambridge Children’s Hospital as their future place of work. We have engaged with staff through face-to-face and online briefings, team meetings, bespoke staff newsletters and bitesize emails, as well as information posters delivered to wards and departments. We have run in-depth sessions, walking staff through the hospital floor plans, ensuring they understand the design and how it flows.