The RHCYP has several charity partners with offices in the hospital, meaning that they are easy to contact and can give immediate help and support to children and their families. Charity partners include Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity, Kindred, CHAI and Ronald McDonald House. Support can include emergency personal items or toiletries, a quiet space to talk and be listened to, arts programmes and activities for children’s wellbeing, complementary therapies for families, advocacy and specialist advice. Contact them directly or speak to your child’s nursing team.
Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity 
We are Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity (ECHC), the only charity in the world solely dedicated to supporting NHS Lothian’s children’s services. We look forward to meeting you when you come to visit. You will recognise us from our red hoodies and you will find our Children’s Wellbeing team around the hospital and in The Hub in the Family Support corridor.
We are here to make sure that you have as positive an experience of the hospital as possible.
We run a six-day-per-week programme of arts and activities so your imagination can thrive, and you are kept busy with fun things to do. Our team transform the hospital so that wards become discos, dragons soar through waiting areas and bedside curtains become galleries.
Our Hospital Youth Work team are here to help if you are feeling anxious, lonely, or want to speak to someone about something worrying you. We can help you and your family to find the right support in the hospital and back at home.
We also support the play programme, hardship funding, enhancements to the hospital for comfort, clinical research, world-class medical equipment, and therapeutic design within the building. We look forward to meeting you, finding out what is important to you during your stay, and helping you have the best visit that you can.
Get in touch
To find out more about our work, visit ECHC, call us on 0131 668 4949, or e-mail hello@echcharity.org
The Hub
The Hub team is a youth work, child and family support service. It provides services which focus on the needs of children, young people and their families, with these service users having a lead role in the development of programmes and the type of services offered. Community education and youth work values are at the centre of the service and empowerment, equality, social justice, human flourishing, engagement and participation are fundamental to what we do.
Open to everyone, the Hub team provides a range of services and referred support work including one to one support groups, activities, our weekly youth group, quarterly youth forum, advice and signposting to services within a family’s local community.
For more information, please contact hub@echcharity.org
Arts Programme
The ECHC Arts Team delivers a wide programme of arts and activities at the RHCYP as well as in community and mental health settings, including Queen Margaret Hospital, Musselburgh Primary Care Centre and CAMHS inpatient units.
The team has grown to run over 1000 arts workshops each year, on five days a week and provide fun, creativity and distraction for babies, children and young people of all ages. The team can deliver bespoke workshops and work together with other arts organisations. The core programme includes magic, music, storytelling and Indian dance; a Clinic Programme, including Baby Sensory, Step Out dance sessions and Wee Replicators; and a Seasonal Programme for Easter, summer, Halloween and Christmas.
Christmas can be a particularly difficult time for children and families in hospital, so the Arts Team works hard to make it as magical as possible and to ensure that children and young people are not missing out on what is happening at home or at school. Every year, the team runs a Living Advent Calendar, bringing a new surprise to the wards for every day of December, including celebrity visits and activities such as silent discos and Christmas parties.
Importantly, the arts programme also delivers a series of workshops which support children to achieve their clinical goals, for example supporting children during physiotherapy with a programme of dance workshops.
For more information, please contact arts@echcharity.org
Kindred
Kindred is a specialist charity that exists to support the families of children with complex needs. The Kindred team at the RHCYP is on hand for families who have a child in hospital, either through ill health or trauma.
We understand that looking after a child in hospital can have a big impact on family life, emotionally and practically: we can help by offering emotional support, information and advocacy to parents and carers. We can assist you with:
- Funding applications (including travel costs)
- Advocacy (including meetings with hospital staff)
- Benefits such as Disability Living Allowance
- Liaising with professionals involved in your child’s care
- Access to counselling
Get in touch
The Kindred team can be found in the Family Support corridor on the Ground Floor of the RHCYP. We can also come to see you on your child’s ward – please speak to your child’s nursing team and ask for a visit.
You can contact Kindred by phone on 0800 031 5793.
Visit Kindred-Scotland.
