Staff Frequently Asked Questions: July 2025

The hospital is being built on land opposite the Rosie Hospital, next to the Cambridge Movement Surgical Hub. There are hoardings featuring photos of children and young people involved in the project marking out the footprint of the site.

Planning permission was granted in March 2022 and pre-construction works began in February 2024. We are working hard to complete our Full Business Case, finalise hospital designs and appoint a construction partner.

With a project the scale and size of Cambridge Children’s Hospital, our timelines are under constant review. We anticipate that construction will start in early 2027, and it is our aspiration to finish construction on the new hospital in 2030. These timescales will be confirmed once a construction partner is appointed, however all timescales are indicative and subject to change.

The new Children’s Hospital will include:

• Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) with beds that can flex between level 2 and level 3 care, including an end-of-life care room and a bereavement suite
• 7 theatres including an emergency theatre, with paediatric recovery
• Imaging including X-ray, ultrasound, MRI, CT and fluoroscopy
• Surgical and medical day units
• Cancer day unit
• Haematology, oncology and bone marrow transplant inpatient ward
• 3 integrated inpatient wards which will cater for children with both physical and mental health needs
• Pharmacy provision
• Hospital school with classroom space on the wards and on the ground floor
• New Cambridge Children’s Research Institute – part of the University of Cambridge which will host research activity on childhood cancer, diabetes and obesity, genomic medicine, infection and inflammation, neurodevelopment and mental health, and perinatal health.

The design also includes a café, lots of outdoor space, rest areas for staff and families, day dining facilities for inpatients, training and meeting rooms, an information centre, a multi-faith sanctuary space and much more. All patient rooms are single cubicles and ensuite.

This means that patients currently cared for on wards C2, D2, C3, F3, PDU and PICU will move across from Addenbrooke’s into the Children’s Hospital, and those currently cared for in the Darwin and Croft Units will move across from Ida Darwin.

In total there will be 166 beds at Cambridge Children's Hospital. This includes:

• 72 physical health inpatient beds
• 36 mental health inpatient beds
• 16 Paediatric Intensive Care Unit beds
• 42 day-case beds

All rooms will be single ensuite, providing private space for patients and their families. Some of the inpatient beds will be ‘universal rooms’ – designed so that they can be flexible and accommodate children with both mental and physical healthcare needs, with appropriate skilled staff around them.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital will treat children and young people from 0 to 16 years of age, across the East of England and beyond, including children and young people with cancer. For mental health provision, CCH will continue to provide care for admissions for young people up to their 18th birthday.

The hospital will also include surgical theatres and a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) with capacity to care safely for the sickest children within our region and better support families. Our regional transport and retrieval service for sick children (PaNDR) is already transferring children and young people between hospitals across the region.

Our approach to the ‘whole child’ will not only improve care for children and young people with mental health conditions, but also provide much needed emotional and psychological support for children and young people with chronic diseases and their families.

Most children and young people receiving treatment at Cambridge Children’s Hospital will aim to move into adult services at around 16 years of age. However, depending on their individual clinical and developmental needs, some young people may benefit from ongoing care in Cambridge Children’s Hospital until they are 18 years of age. We plan to be flexible, with individualised, age-appropriate care determined by needs and feedback from the young person and their families.

This video (opens in a new tab) shows some of the architects’ concept designs for Cambridge Children’s to give you an idea of what the hospital might look like.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital will be located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus on land opposite the Rosie Hospital. There will be a tunnel on level 0 linking the Children’s Hospital to the Rosie Hospital and main Addenbrooke’s site. The tunnel will spilt into two lanes: one to host patients accompanied by staff across the two sites, and one for heavy goods, linen delivery, pharmacy stock etc. There will be traffic lights in the tunnel to support safe flow. We aim to make this space as an inviting as possible as it will be an entrance into a Cambridge Children’s Hospital. Staff will be able to access the hospital via the tunnel, arriving on level 0 near the research institute and taking the stairs or lifts up to other levels of the new building.

Staff rest and staff change areas (including showers and lockers) are located throughout the hospital, as well as shared spaces both inside and outside to take a break. Staff rest spaces will include facilities to prepare and eat food, connect with colleagues and relax.

Admin and office spaces are located throughout the hospital. The design includes a range of different workspaces including hot-desking and drop-in space, meeting rooms, multi-function spaces, quiet and confidential spaces and some office space, with plenty of access to computers. We will work hard to ensure that we make the best use of space to support clinical delivery.

Yes, the hospital has been designed with children and young people in mind and has spaces appropriate for all ages, from infants to teenagers.

The hospital has been designed to be fully accessible for those using wheelchairs and with other access or mobility requirements. The design includes accessible toilets and changing places, rooms with hoists and sensory rooms. We have worked with a specialist group to review the floor plans of the hospital through a SEND lens.

Yes, the hospital has been designed to provide space for families and carers to prepare meals and eat together, to socialise with each other and to have space away from the clinical area. Families and carers will also have access to the café and outdoor spaces.

All patient rooms will have a bed for a parent or carer to stay in the room. The building design includes an additional six rooms for families alongside the existing family accommodation at Acorn House.

Yes, each integrated ward has a hospital school space as well as the main school space located on the ground floor. Children and young people will be encouraged to attend school wherever possible to keep learning, socialise with others and maintain a sense of routine and normality during their stay in hospital.

Yes, the hospital design includes spaces specifically allocated to play. We will work with staff, patients and families to ensure spaces are designed for various age groups and abilities.

Yes, there is a dedicated Cambridge Children’s Research Institute on the lower ground and ground floor. This will be run by the University of Cambridge and will host research activity on childhood cancer, diabetes and obesity, genomic medicine, infection and inflammation, neurodevelopment and mental health, and perinatal health. Read more here.

A café is located in the main entrance to the Children’s Hospital. As well as being able to visit the café yourself, we are investigating options for being able to order food for delivery to different work areas across the hospital.

Yes. This includes the café on the ground floor as well as designated dining areas in inpatient areas where patients, their visitors and ward staff can enjoy their meals in a communal setting. Staff will have access to dedicated rest space equipped with comfortable seating, kitchen amenities and quiet areas to take a break.

Yes, there are several infant feeding rooms in the hospital design. We have engaged with the Baby Friendly Initiative to ensure that nursing parents, including staff, have suitable space to feed or express.

Yes, there is a sanctuary space available on the ground floor which is multi-faith and will include washing facilities.

We will work with individual teams to consider their equipment and storage needs, and support them to think about the operational details of sharing and moving equipment.

There is very little additional parking being developed for Cambridge Children’s Hospital, except for spaces available for drop off and disabled parking. Parking may be available in other car parks on the Biomedical Campus, depending on eligibility, including for those working out of hours and on-call. The Children’s Hospital will be built next to Car Park 2.

Free car parking is available at Babraham Road or Trumpington park and ride sites, with options to travel to the campus by bus, VOI electric bike or scooter, personal bike or scooter, or on foot.

The Biomedical Campus is well served by a number of bus routes to towns and villages across Cambridgeshire and beyond.

The new Cambridge South railway station, located adjacent to the Biomedical Campus, is due to open in 2026, ahead of the Children’s Hospital, and will improve connectivity between the Biomedical Campus, central Cambridge and stations across the region.

You can read more about the Cambridge Biomedical Campus Travel and Transport Plan here (opens in a new tab).

Additional secure cycle storage is being built as part of the plans for Cambridge Children’s Hospital.

There are allocated spaces for pool cars at the side entrance of Cambridge Children's Hospital, close to PICU. Cambridge University Hospitals also has pool car parking in all the multi-storey car parks across the campus.

Cambridge Children’s Network was launched in January 2021 and now has hundreds of members from across the region, who receive information about opportunities to get involved. We have a group of six Parent Advocates, all with lived experience of accessing children’s services for physical and mental health conditions. They are embedded across all aspects of the project to provide challenge, contribute ideas and play a vital role in the developing plans. We also have a Parent Carer Voice which meets four times a year, a Youth Forum for ages 14-18, and a Young Adult Forum for ages 18-25. We are also working with existing patient groups and third sector organisations across the region.

Find out more about how we are working with children, young people and families on the project here.

We are working closely with service leads and managers, alongside our coproduction groups, to develop Target Operating Models, which outline the proposed operational and clinical model of care for various elements of the hospital. This includes engagement with services that will not physically be located in the Children’s Hospital building, such as the emergency department and outpatients, as well as thinking about transitions back to home, community care and into adult services. These models and pathways will continue to be developed in collaboration with staff, patients and carers over the coming months and years.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital is designed to be 100% single patient bedrooms, which brings many benefits including peace and quiet, privacy, reducing overstimulation, enabling better rest and sleep and reducing infection risk.

However, we recognise there is a risk of patients, families and carers feeling isolated and are thinking carefully about how we embed opportunities for movement and socialising into the model of care. There is lots of communal space designed into the hospital, including spaces for play, school, eating and other activities, with both indoor and outdoor space available. Families and carers will also have access to respite lounge areas.

Children and young people will be encouraged to be up and out of their rooms and in communal spaces whenever they are well enough. Digital tools will also be used to engage with children and young people and ensure they know what activities they can take part in across the hospital.

The Children’s Hospital has been designed with children and young people in mind. This includes a number of design features that will help patients to feel comfortable and ‘at home’ in the environment.

We will work with teams to think about their models of care and how they can best facilitate the required treatment and recovery in the new environment.

The safety and wellbeing of all our patients is a critical component of how we are developing the models of care with staff, patients, families and carers. We are also working with security experts to ensure that the design facilitates the appropriate levels of safety and security in different areas of the hospital.

The vision of the Children’s Hospital is to be a ‘hospital without walls’. This means we will work beyond the building with community and regional teams to improve healthcare for children and young people across the whole region. We are working with colleagues across community services, secondary providers, primary care and social care to develop these models of care collaboratively.

Our Regional Clinical Advisory Board launched in July 2025, with leading clinical and transformation professionals from around the East of England, and parent and youth representatives. Ahead of our Full Business Case submission, they will be looking at how we can work collaboratively with our regional colleagues to support the improvement of physical and mental health provision in the region, and maximise benefit for children, young people and their families.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital is a partnership between Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH), Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) and the University of Cambridge (UoC) as well as the Local Education Authority who will provide schooling. There are no plans for the Children’s Hospital to become an organisation in its own right, although we will work hard to foster a single Children’s Hospital identity and culture where processes and systems feel clear and smooth. It will be closely linked with existing services on the Biomedical Campus.

Existing staff will retain their current employer, with staff employed by CUH, CPFT and the University of Cambridge as well as the Local Education Authority working alongside each other in the building.

The Cambridge Children’s Hospital vision is that we will care for the ‘whole child’, thinking about their physiological and psychological needs in a holistic way. All children and young people will benefit from psychologically-informed care alongside their specialist treatment.

Children with both physical health and mental health needs will share some common spaces (dining, play, school etc.) while having their own space to maintain privacy and dignity.

Shared decision making and governance processes will support delivery of integrated care while meeting the different commissioning and operational needs. A single electronic patient record will be in place and we anticipate some joint ward rounds and MDTs where appropriate.

Resourcing may be shared across some wards or clinical areas, where this is appropriate. We are developing the workforce model and identifying the generalist and specialist skills that will be required. This is an evolving picture - more detail about this will be shared over time.

The Children’s Hospital will also seek to integrate research with care to benefit our patients and families. A strategy is in development to explore this concept further.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital is bigger than its four walls. Everyone who is part of delivering care to children and young people at CUH is part of Cambridge Children’s Hospital, even if you won’t physically be located in the building. We are working hard to ensure that patient pathways and flow into and out of the hospital and links with services remaining on the main site are the best they can be.

Knowing who is who and who does what is vital to ensuring the new hospital will be a success. There will be a number of opportunities to get to know colleagues from different services and organisations between now and the Children’s Hospital opening, and part of the transition plan will be to ensure roles and responsibilities are clearly defined.

We are committed to developing one Children’s Hospital team where everyone working there feels they belong, regardless of their employing organisation. With input from external experts, we have developed a comprehensive organisational development plan that carefully considers all the aspects of successfully bringing multiple teams together.

Every single member of staff has a part to play in making this hospital as successful as possible to deliver the best patient care and experience. We look forward to working with staff in all roles over the coming years to make that happen.

It’s really important that we maintain existing links and pathways between teams and improve them where needed. As we develop the models of care for the new hospital, we are working with teams across the partner organisations to ensure that services both inside and outside the new building are joined up to offer the best patient care possible. We are supporting services to think about how they can implement the ‘whole child’ vision.

The project team will develop a comprehensive transition plan which will set out the plans for the move to the new hospital, in collaboration with teams and services. Significant thought and planning will go into making this a seamless process.

There is further work to be done closer to the hospital opening to ensure everyone is clear about which policies and processes to use. Wherever possible, we will look to align policies and processes across the partner organisations.

Our current modelling indicates that around 1,300 NHS staff will work in the Children’s Hospital, the majority of which are existing CUH and CPFT staff. Current modelling suggest around 175 additional staff are likely to be required across a number of professions. We will work closely with existing teams to plan for recruitment of any additional staff.

We anticipate that around 200 University of Cambridge staff will work in the new Cambridge Children’s Research Institute in the building.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital will deliver holistic and integrated care for children and young people with both physical health and mental health provision, alongside widespread research.

Depending on your role, and with appropriate training, you might work with both mental and physical health patients, or you might remain a specialist in your particular area. We are developing the workforce model for different areas of the hospital in discussion with different services. This is an evolving picture – more detail about this will be shared over time.

Treating mental health and physical health together at Cambridge Children’s Hospital provides staff with opportunities to develop their skills, with specialist training available.

Our aim is for all staff who interact with children, young people, and their carers to be supported to have a universal level of training in the ‘whole child’ approach. This may include a focus on psychologically-informed care and a family-centred approach, as well as skills in communication and using play and developmentally-appropriate activity. We would also like to develop staff skills in improving the way we work together and understanding the role of research.

For clinical staff, we will develop a modular approach that enables people to gain skills and competencies in specialist areas across physical health, mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity, physical intervention and restraint training and integrated working. This will provide options for both registered and unregistered staff, and support the development of a skilled and flexible workforce. This will enable staff to develop new skills in areas of interest or need, while remaining part of their speciality and home team.

The Children’s Hospital will also look to support some dual registered nurses – nurses who have completed studies across two fields of nursing (either Child and Mental Health, or Child and Learning Disability) and hold a dual registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Dual registered nursing staff will provide additional flexibility and skills across a ward or clinical area alongside children’s nurses, mental health nurses and learning disability nurses. There is no expectation that existing nursing staff will need to become dual registered, although there may be opportunities for those that would like to take this route.

Watch this video for more information about what staff training and skills will look like to deliver an integrated model of care.

We recognise that in any and every health setting, children, young people, and their parents can and do occasionally become so distressed that behaviours can escalate to the point where risks need to be managed. Improving the quality and experience of patient care in Cambridge Children’s Hospital is fundamental to our goals, and this includes the principal of working proactively to avoid additional trauma that can result from the responses that such escalations easily evoke from staff, especially if they feel untrained or unsupported.

This will include adopting an approach called “least-restrictive practice”, wherever possible, so that we do not respond to escalations with further, even more escalatory, measures if less traumatising responses are possible. Ideally these would be responses that emphasise and support the development of the child/parent’s own agency in managing themselves, rather than further disempowering them.

As part of our ‘whole child’ approach, we will train all staff in basic preventive planning and de-escalation techniques. There will be opportunities for some to develop their skills further in this area, to become competent and confident in working as a team to use physical intervention with safe restraint holds where these are absolutely necessary. This will aim to avoid or minimise the practice of using poorly trained and often unintentionally frightening security staff who have no knowledge of the person they are restraining. Through a regular training programme, and learning from experience, we will ensure enough people are suitably trained to manage the safety and security of all patients and staff in the hospital.

No, we will make sure systems and processes mean mandatory training only has to be done once and will apply across the whole hospital, regardless of your employing organisation.

We are working on the operational model and staffing structure for the new hospital, in collaboration with clinical and operational teams. We will be able to share more detail over time.

Please speak to your manager or service lead in the first instance to discuss the plans for your particular service or department. You can also contact us with any specific questions.

We are working with individual services and teams to develop the models of care for the new hospital, including out of hours cover where relevant. In some areas this may require additional staffing to ensure the service runs safely and effectively.

The two NHS trusts (CPFT and CUH) are very aware of the affordability of living or working in Cambridge. We are considering how best to lobby the new government and the most appropriate mechanisms for doing this with respect to NHS Agenda for Change pay and any potential High Cost Area allowance for this area.

No, there are no anticipated redundancies as a result of the move to Cambridge Children’s Hospital. There may be the opportunity to apply for different roles which would require a recruitment process.

There is work to be done to align policies and processes across the partner organisations and ensure everyone is clear which they should be following. More detail will be shared over time.

Education, training and development will be crucial to the ethos and running of Cambridge Children’s Hospital. There will be lots of opportunities to learn skills in new areas or take on new qualifications, as well as the possibility of secondments or rotational posts to gain more experience in different areas. There will also be the chance to get more involved with research through our partnership with the University of Cambridge.

We are working on our education, training and development plan and will be able to share more details over time.

The workforce model will continue to evolve in discussion with clinical and operational teams over the coming years, but we anticipate that there will be lots of new opportunities for which staff can apply.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital brings with it lots of opportunities for career progression. That could mean developing your clinical skills in new areas across physical or mental health, taking on leadership roles, getting more involved with teaching and research, or leading improvement projects. There are likely to be new roles and new ways of working that will create opportunities for staff to develop their skills and build their careers within a specialist children’s hospital.

Digital opportunities for engagement are being considered as we develop the models of care across the hospital. We will seek to strike a balance between using digital technology positively and efficiently while ensuring human interaction is still central to the care that is provided. We will be mindful of the impact that long periods of screen time can have for children and young people.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital provides significant opportunities to make better use of technology to support patients and families. We will continue to engage with our coproduction groups and staff to develop ideas for what this might look like.

Yes, there will be a single Electronic Patient Record (EPR) used in the Children’s Hospital. The current plan is for the CUH EPR system to be used and this will be confirmed during the Full Business Case stage.

As part of our digital strategy, we are considering how to best use technology in a number of ways. This includes the possibility of a scheduling tool to allow various members of the multi-disciplinary team, children and young people and their families and carers to see when things are scheduled and be able to plan their activities accordingly.

There are lots of opportunities to use AI to improve the efficiency of our care delivery, and free up time for staff to spend directly delivering patient care. This forms part of the planning with teams and services about the models of care across the hospital. If you have ideas about how AI could be used in your service, please get in touch!

A key focus of the digital strategy for the Children’s Hospital is designing for maximum flexibility, so that we can take advantage of the most appropriate tools and technologies that develop over the coming years.

Yes, there will be lots of opportunities to get involved in research at a range of different levels. If you’d like to get more involved in research before the Children’s Hospital opens, take a look at:

• Cambridgeshire’s Love Research campaign – a joint project between CUH, CPFT and Royal Papworth
• For CUH staff: Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Professionals Research Hub (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab)
• For CPFT staff: Start your path in research with CPFT (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab)

Please get in touch with us at cuh.cambridgchildrens@nhs.net and one of the team will come back to you.

We really welcome the involvement of as many staff as possible as the plans for Cambridge Children’s Hospital come together.

Please contact cuh.cambridgechildrens@nhs.net to join our mailing list.

Look out for our staff newsletter and bitesize information sent directly to your inbox, which will highlight project progress, any upcoming events or sessions to join.

We run regular updates, Q&A sessions and bespoke sessions with individual teams and services. Please contact us if you have specific ideas or would like to be involved further.

You can also follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram and BlueSky - @CambChildrens

Thank you to everyone who joined the focus groups with our partners NLC Ltd earlier this year. We really valued your thoughts, ideas and contributions. You can read more about what we learnt from these focus groups here and watch a video.

Frontrunners is a new, innovative transformation programme designed to help staff drive forward meaningful change in their current work environments while preparing for the transition to the new hospital.

You can read more about Frontrunners and find out when the next round of applications opens here.

It’s completely normal to feel a bit concerned about changes coming up and we’d encourage you to talk to your colleagues or line manager about these.

You can also get in touch with services such as the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough staff support hub for free and confidential support for all healthcare staff in the area:

Website: https://supportcambridgeshire.org.uk/staff-support-hub/ (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab)

Telephone: 0808 808 2121

Email: staffsupporthub@cpft.nhs.uk

CUH staff can also access the CiC Wellbeing (Confidential Care) employee assistance programme by calling the 24 hour confidential helpline: 0800 056 2120, or +44 204 620 0401.