Child and family support

With your help, we provide services to ease the burden on families, raise spirits, and support children and young people through life-saving treatment.

Our environment can have a profound effect on our mood and overall wellbeing. At Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), this is all the more apparent, as children and families have to deal with intense stress and unfamiliar surroundings.

Our range of support projects help to provide an enhanced patient and family experience. For example, a dedicated team of 52 charity-funded Play team members, who support around 25,000 patients and around 2,500 parents and siblings a year, bringing fun into the hospital and helping patients come to terms with their illness. GOSH Arts provide creative stimulation and brighten up the hospital community with art and live music. Our Chaplaincy team provide support and advice for parents, and our accommodation services keep families together.

• by funding accommodation for parents to stay overnight
• by paying towards a parent’s bed in our new building 
• by funding meals for breast feeding mothers 
• by contributing towards our multi-faith chaplaincy 
• by supporting patient families needing help with expenses.

Curious to find out more about how our child and family support services make a difference? Discover the impact of your support.

Spend any amount of time at GOSH and you’ll soon notice a legion clad in purple and lilac, moving purposefully around the hospital carrying teddies, buckets of bricks or stacks of books.

This colourful crew is the Play team, who are dedicated to bringing fun into the hospital and making life as normal as possible for the children who need to be there. They can ease a child’s anxieties about being in hospital and even help them to recover more quickly. The team consists of play specialists and play workers, who work together to share their unique expertise in childcare and play.

Their vital work depends on your support.

Visit our hospital website for more information about patient and family accommodation and our chaplaincy and spiritual care services.