Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is committed to tackling health inequalities, including the impact of food poverty on children’s well-being, by advocating for better access to nutritious food and supporting services that address the wider determinants of health. As part of our 5-year Clinical Strategy (2022-2027), we collaborate with regional and national partners to promote sustainable healthcare, improve food access, and support families facing deprivation.

Practices
Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is one of only three dedicated children’s hospital trusts in the UK and provides integrated healthcare for children and young people, including community and mental health care as well as acute and specialist services. We see children from 0-16 in most cases and in some cases up to 18. We provide a full range of services for residents of Sheffield and South Yorkshire as well as specialised services for patients from across the United Kingdom.
Our overall vision is “to create a healthier future for children and young people.” We recognise the challenges that many of our patients and their families face. There are 328,000 children and young people who live in South Yorkshire, and we know that we have some of the highest deprivation rates, health inequalities and worst health outcomes in the country. We are aware that children and young people with protected characteristic backgrounds such as disability, race and sexuality face poorer health outcomes.
Our 5 year Clinical Strategy (2022-2027) aims to address some of these challenges. We aim to provide environmentally sustainable healthcare and to address the impact of poverty on health outcomes. As part of this plan, we will use our voice and influence to advocate for health inequalities and work with partners at city regional level and national level. We want to focus more on prevention and signposting to services that support the wider determinants of health within South Yorkshire.
We are currently working towards a pledge that no family should go hungry when they stay with us. We provide Food Works frozen meals on a pay what you can basis for all families staying with us. We also provide a meal of the day for £1.50 for families and colleagues and 20% off food at the Restaurant if a family has stayed with us for over 4 days. We offer a free breakfast to parents staying on the ward. For children and siblings visiting our acute outpatient services we provide a free meal (jacket potato, beans and salad).
Our Healthier Futures Programme is working to look at how we can ensure the food we provide is nutritious, culturally appropriate, and sustainable. We are looking to review and improve our purchasing power and provision but this will take time and be incremental.