Award-winning involvement

The Corp Comms Award for the category 'Best embodiment of corporate purpose' has been presented to Evelina London Children's Hospital for putting children and families at the heart of developing the new children's day surgery unit.

Teams working on communication and engagement plans for the children's day surgery unit within the Children's Day Treatment Centre worked with surgical team colleagues and the design team to ensure that children and families were involved at all stages. From input into the design and function, including planning the journey children would take on the day of surgery, to creating the artwork, their voices were integral to creating the child-friendly and welcoming space-themed unit.

The Corp Comms Awards are open to all industries and celebrate the work of in-house corporate communications teams and supporting agencies.

Gubby Ayida, CEO of Evelina London Women's and Children's Clinical Group, said: "I'm so proud that the hard work of our teams has been recognised. The engagement and communications work supporting the development of this unit means the voices of children and families are reflected and brought to life in the unit we have today.

This award is a fitting tribute to our teams' commitment to holding true to one of our most important values of putting children and families at the heart of what we do. It is brilliant to see their work shining through alongside corporate giants and big budget agencies.

The award-winning work was undertaken over more than 2 years and involved collaboration across all teams working on the new unit. The award recognises activities such as the art competition which led to outer space-themed designs by children that now decorate the unit, a special space-themed event with The UK Space Agency and the involvement of patients in the unit's official opening by The Princess of Wales, Evelina London's Patron. As well as development of a film with TV presenter Dr Ranj, to put children at ease ahead of their surgery.

Since it first opened to patients in July 2023, over 2,600 procedures have been carried out within our children's day surgery unit and the feedback we have received from families has been very positive.