GOSH Voice - What we've been up to

GOSH Voice brought together patients, siblings and families to help shape a new short film all about how to have “The Best Video Appointment.”

We wanted to create a fun, humorous and genuinely helpful film that showed patients and families how to get the most out of a video appointment. Our families helped work on the project plan and ideas as well as helping us narrow down which celebrities they'd like to be included.

Next steps

The team will be working closely with the GOSH charity to create the film. Celebrity guests will star alongside our GOSH patients and families, to create a helpful video guide to getting the most out of video appointments.

The Psychology team is refreshing their "Being Me" support group- a group for young people with visible differences.

As part of this, they collaborated with our members who have visible differences to co-design what future sessions would look like.

Members joined in a online focus group, and provided invaluable feedback to the team. Helping to shape a visible difference group that is useful and supportive to young people with a visible difference.

Feedback

"The focus group went very well! All attendees shared very helpful insights and ideas."

We held our first Society of Siblings meeting in April!

Siblings of GOSH patients took part in a series of facilitated workshops, during which the team gathered valuable insight to help shape how we better understand and support siblings across GOSH going forward.

Following their contributions, the group enjoyed a well‑earned afternoon of activities and lunch at Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes.

What's next?

Over the coming months, the team will work with colleagues and families to bring the siblings’ ideas and feedback into practice.

We will be running our next Society of Siblings event in the coming months.

Parents and carers have been actively involved in the Radiology working group as part of our efforts to redesign the radiology department. They collaborate closely with GOSH staff and the design team to help shape the new plans for the department’s transformation. The group gathers every month, with GOSH Voice parents and carers playing an essential and ongoing role throughout the process.

We wanted to hear from young people and parents who come to the neurodisability service at GOSH. We wanted to find out how we could improve the questions used in a survey and the posters used in our clinics.

Our members worked closely with the neurodisability team, and provided great feedback and insight in this online session.

What happened as a result?

The team have updated and edited their posters and survey as a result, and these will go live in the next few weeks. Keep an eye out in clinic!

We held our fourth Parent & Carer Teen Healthcare Group in April. This group brings together families to share their experiences and insights around supporting young people through the transition to adult services.

The session focused on what is working well, what could be improved, and the kinds of resources and information that would make a real difference to parents and carers during this important stage of their child’s healthcare journey. These conversations are crucial in helping us shape meaningful, practical support.

Our next group will take place in June, where we’ll continue building on this valuable work.

We had recently heard lots of brilliant ideas and passionate feedback about MyGOSH from across our GOSH Voice groups. We wanted to build on this and make sure more patient and parent voices were included in MyGOSH discussions. We’re working closely with the MyGOSH Team to help shape and improve the MyGOSH patient app.

The MyGOSH meetings are a monthly staff working group that focuses on all things MyGOSH. We invited MyGOSH Ambassadors to join these meetings, so they could help improve the app by sharing their lived experience, ideas and feedback directly with the team.

Their involvement helped ensure that MyGOSH continues to be shaped by the people who use it.

In April we kicked off our first 'Make GOSH Greener' group. This group is all about helping Great Ormond Street Hospital look after our planet.

In this group, we:

• learned what GOSH was already doing to be kinder to the environment
• shared ideas to help the hospital reduce waste, save energy and look after nature
• worked together to think of fun, creative ways to help make GOSH greener

Members were able to ask questions, share their thoughts and help make real changes.

Our next 'Make GOSH Greener' group for patients and siblings will take place in June.

Families met the architects from BDP (Building Design Partnership) and a creative team called Acrylicize, who design artwork and spaces using storytelling.

Building on ideas shared at the January workshop at the Science Museum, the teams shared the next stage of designs for the new main entrance. Children, young people and families gave their views and helped shape what should happen next.

This was the final workshop focused on the overall design of the entrance, before moving on to more detailed sessions later this year looking at colours, artwork and sound.

The session was fun, interactive, and a real opportunity for families to influence how the new main entrance will look and feel. As part of the creative activities, families also took part in sun printing, creating expressive prints that used foraged leaves and flowers to create artwork inspired by nature. This will be used to feed into the design of the new main entrance.

Our March YPF was dedicated to Space & Place- the area of work at Great Ormond Street Hospital that focuses on the hospital’s buildings, rooms and physical environments.

We were joined by various 'Space & Place' teams:

• The Catering Team delivered a behind‑the‑scenes kitchen tour to display the full journey of food from preparation to delivery on the wards.
• YPF members visited the Children’s Cancer Centre (CCC) construction site 'The Pit!'. They took part in a Q&A session with constructors Sisk regarding the ongoing development of the CCC.
• GOSH Arts, in collaboration with the social enterprise 'MATT + FIONA', led a creative workshop exploring the concept of designing through storytelling. Young people developed a collective installation inspired by remembered places and narratives. The ideas and materials produced will help inform an art piece for the new CCC.
• The Sustainability Team facilitated a session on the refresh of the GOSH Green Plan. YPF members contributed their ideas and perspectives across the 10 priority streams to support the development of key performance indicators.

We held our third Patient & Sibling Teen Healthcare Group in March. This group brings together young people to share their experiences and insights around the transition to adult services.

The session focused on our healthcare transition priorities- what is working well, what could be improved, and the kinds of information that would make a real difference to young people.

Our next group will take place in May, where we’ll continue building on this valuable work.

In February, a GOSH Voice family member shared their lived experience directly with the Trust Board. This was a powerful opportunity for Board members to hear first‑hand what matters most to children, young people and families using GOSH services.

The Trust Board is the group of senior leaders who are responsible for the overall running and direction of Great Ormond Street Hospital (the Trust).

They make the big decisions about:

• the hospital’s priorities and future plans
• quality and safety of care
• patient and family experience
• use of money and resources
• equality, inclusion and health inequalities

The Trust Board includes executive leaders (such as the Chief Executive and Chief Nurse) and non‑executive directors, who provide challenge, oversight and an independent perspective.

What will change / Next steps:
Family insights shared at Trust Board help influence strategic decisions and keep patient and family experience at the heart of how the hospital is led and developed.

Feedback

'Thank you for bringing such an uplifting and inspirational patient story to Trust Board yesterday. It was a timely reminder of the important work that is done here and the people who do it. Thank you to [Family member] for sharing her story in such a powerful way.'

Senior staff member

GOSH Voice members were key speakers at the Paediatric Advanced Practice Network Conference this February.

Our members spoke at the session Leadership Unfiltered: Big voices — the young person and parent perspectives on what makes a good leader

They shared their ideas, experiences and honest thoughts with healthcare professionals from across the country.

The session explored leadership, including:

• What makes a good leader in healthcare?
• What matters most to you as a patient or family member?
• How has leadership shaped your care experience?
• What should healthcare teams do better?

They were fantastic, and received brilliant feedback from conference attendees.

The insight shared helped professionals better understand what matters most to children, young people and families at GOSH.

Parents and carers have been actively involved in the Radiology working group as part of our efforts to redesign the radiology department. They collaborate closely with GOSH staff and the design team to help shape the new plans for the department’s transformation. The group gathers every month, with GOSH Voice parents and carers playing an essential and ongoing role throughout the process.

We kicked off our first Young People’s Forum (YPF) of 2026 with a day of collaboration and creativity.

In the morning, we welcomed our HR (Human Resources) team, who worked with YPF to help shape and refine our new GOSH values, ensuring young people’s voices sit at the heart of everything we do.

The afternoon focused on the next stages of redesigning the main entrance. After sharing the latest design brief, we explored YPF’s ambition to see GOSH’s history brought to life in this space. Together, we uncovered the moments and stories they feel most connected to and began shaping ideas for a vibrant, engaging history wall that celebrates the hospital’s past while welcoming visitors into its future.

GOSH Charity hosted the first Futures Festival since 2020, bringing together patients, families, and a wide range of companies for an inspiring day of career exploration and networking.

Our YPF members played a huge part in the event, teaming up to record video interview with companies throughout the day. Their interviews will form a series of fun, informative videos for our patient bedside system, helping young people discover exciting future pathways from their hospital rooms.

YPF members also ran a vibrant GOSH Voice and YPF stall, sharing their experiences, showcasing the skills they’ve gained, and welcoming new young people interested in getting involved.

Five of our young members joined an interview panel to help select a senior staff member.

They each brough valuable perspectives to the interview process. Their input demonstrates our commitment to including young people in key decisions and ensuring our workforce meets the needs of children, youth, and families.

By making sure young people are given a meaningful voice in the employment of our staff, we continue to build a workforce that truly reflects and responds to the needs of the children, young people, and families we support.

We held our third Parent & Carer Teen Healthcare Group in February. This group brings together families to share their experiences and insights around supporting young people through the transition to adult services.

The session focused on what is working well, what could be improved, and the kinds of resources and information that would make a real difference to parents and carers during this important stage of their child’s healthcare journey. These conversations are crucial in helping us shape meaningful, practical support.

Our next group will take place in April, where we’ll continue building on this valuable work.

As part of our work on the redesign of the radiology department, we held a family workshop in February. This workshop brought together families for a creative and collaborative session.

We were joined by the Radiology team and design team, who talked us through the current department layout and the brief for the upcoming redesign.

Participants then headed into the radiology area equipped with Instax cameras, capturing photos of design features, textures, and elements that inspired them. We later came together to discuss the images and what stood out.

The group then dived into hands‑on creativity, using Lego, play dough, and other materials to model their vision of an ideal radiology space.

Two early theme ideas of nature and space evolved, with participants exploring how these could be woven into future designs. Their ideas and feedback will play a key role in shaping a radiology environment that feels welcoming, imaginative, and young‑person‑centred.

We hosted a creative, hands-on workshop at the Science Museum to share the new main entrance designs with patients and families.

The session brought together GOSH Voice patients and siblings aged 5–19, along with parents and carers, to explore the ideas behind the designs and help shape what comes next.

GOSH Voice members shared their thoughts on different elements of the entrance before heading into the 'Wonderlab'. Each member was armed with an Instax cameras, to capture anything that inspired them- from exciting exhibits to interesting textures and architecture.

The day also gave everyone the chance to get creative, using a range of materials and their own artistic skills to bring key entrance details to life.

Their ideas, photos and creations provided valuable insight and inspiration, helping ensure the new main entrance truly reflects the voices and experiences of the children and families who will use it.

We hope to bring this group back together at the next phase of the main entrance planning.

During this month's Teenage Healthcare Group our young people gave their feedback on the new draft of the Patient Empowerment, Healthcare Transition, and Transfer Policy.

The group highlighted the importance of:

• Signing up and being educated on how to maximise the functionality of MyGOSH- out patient app.
• Being able to ask questions and advocate for themselves during appointments.
• The importance of having access to information that can allow them to look after their health whilst enjoying being a teenager.

Our next session will be in March.