Construction of Cambridge Children’s Hospital to start in 2026 after government gives green light

Plans for the region’s first specialist children’s hospital can move forward after the project was given the green light to appoint a contractor.

This comes after ministers signed off the hospital’s outline business case in a move that recognises the project has the appropriate funding streams in place to deliver the facility.

Construction of Cambridge Children’s Hospital, which is being co-designed with the help of children, young people, families and healthcare professionals, is expected to start in 2026.

Dr Rob Heuschkel, clinical lead for physical health at Cambridge Children’s Hospital said: “We are absolutely delighted that we can now move forward to enter contracts with a construction partner, so we can finally start to see work happening on site.

“A huge amount of work has gone into finalising the designs and getting us to this point, and I want to thank our healthcare staff, young people and their families from across the region who have been contributing valuable feedback and helping us shape our plans, right from the very start.

“The East of England is the only region in the UK without a specialist children’s hospital, and we look forward to changing that very soon.”

The outline business case was submitted to the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England in December 2023.

It outlines the proposed outcome and benefits of the hospital and builds on the strategic outline case, which was approved by the government in 2018.

The project has now been signed off by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

The ministerial backing means that the outline business case, the second stage of the business case process, has now been fully approved by the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and HM Treasury.

It was approved in principle in September 2023, subject to a capital affordability review by NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care’s joint investment committee. That review took place in April and resulted in a recommendation to ministers to endorse the decision.

The government committed £100million to Cambridge Children’s Hospital in 2018 and project leaders say it is on track to meet its target of another £100m through philanthropy and fundraising. However in May, a £184m funding gap was reported last year.

The outline business case was signed off this month and the approval recognises that the hospital will meet the needs of patients and staff right across the East of England and that the project has the appropriate funding streams in place.

The hospital is being co-designed with the help of children, young people, families and healthcare professionals across the region to ensure the new hospital will meet the needs of patients, families and staff.

The approval comes as a programme of groundworks preparing for the build was completed in July, and new access roads have now been installed where the new five-storey, 35,000 sq m hospital will be located, opposite the Rosie Maternity Hospital, on Robinson Way and Dame Mary Archer Way. In the coming weeks, people will be able to see hoardings installed around the site.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital is a partnership between Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH), which runs Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the county’s mental health services, along with the University of Cambridge.

The hospital, which will be built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, will care for children and young people from Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, but also nationally and internationally as a ‘hospital without walls’, embedding genomic and psychological research alongside clinical expertise in physical and mental child health.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital is described as a brand new state-of-the-art hospital designed to take care of the whole child, not just their illness.

Dr Isobel Heyman, clinical lead for mental health at Cambridge Children’s Hospital said: “This really is fantastic news and an exciting moment in our journey to build a truly integrated children’s hospital for the East of England.

“The current model of mental health care is inadequate. Many children with physical ill-health also have significant mental health needs, and vice versa.

“Cambridge Children’s Hospital offers a solution. By delivering holistic care for children, young people and their families, this not only reduces stigma, but the revolutionary model of care really does act as a blueprint for the NHS and the future of healthcare.”

The fundraising campaign for Cambridge Children’s Hospital has now passed the halfway mark and the project remains on track to meet its £100m philanthropy target.

The hospital will also house a University of Cambridge research institute, focussed on preventing childhood illness and early intervention across mental and physical healthcare.

Prof David Rowitch, clinical lead for research at Cambridge Children’s Hospital, said: “By bringing clinicians and patients together with University of Cambridge investigators and industry partners, we aim to shift the medicine paradigm from traditional reactive approaches, to one based on early detection, precision intervention and disease prevention.

“Co-locating research efforts inside Cambridge Children’s Hospital will mean we can detect disease early or even prevent it altogether, personalise health care and prescribe treatments more appropriate for children and their individual health needs.

“We’ll also be able to foster collaborations to advance the power of advanced diagnostics, digital and telehealth technology to support healthcare professions from a distance, to deliver care closer to people’s homes, wherever they live in our region.”

Work now continues on the full business case for Cambridge Children’s Hospital’s, the final stage of the process.