On 14 March 2024, NHS leaders for London and the South East chose Evelina London Children’s Hospital as the future location of very specialist cancer services for children living in south London and much of south east England.

This followed a rigorous, clinically-led process, including a public consultation.

It means very specialist children’s cancer services will move from The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust’s hospital in Sutton and St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s hospital in Tooting, where they are currently based, to Evelina London’s specialist children’s hospital, which is part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Conventional radiotherapy will move from The Royal Marsden to University College Hospital, which is part of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Children across the south of England already have proton beam therapy at University College Hospital.

About 1,400 children, almost all aged one to 15, who live in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, Kent, Medway, south London and much of Surrey, are under the care of the children’s cancer centre at any given time. Of these, about 540 a year have inpatient care.

The move is not expected to happen before October 2026 and there will be no sudden changes to children’s cancer care in the meantime.

Since the decision, Evelina London and NHS England have been working with partners to jointly plan and put in place arrangements for the future children’s cancer centre.

Families of young patients treated for cancer and staff are helping shape plans for the future centre. This includes representation on the Travel, Access and Accommodation Advisory Group which has been set up to focus on these important elements of the service. It will ensure that issues raised about them are addressed.

For example, Evelina London is finding ways to reduce the stress of travelling to the future cancer centre with plans for:

• drawing on its extensive experience of looking after children who require complex care to reduce the number of times they need to travel to hospital. For example, scheduling multiple appointments for the same day
• providing patient transport vehicles when needed for children travelling to an appointment/hospital stay
• free parking available for all parents/carers of children with cancer who prefer to drive their child to their appointment
• providing advice, guidance and support, including education, to staff treating children with cancer in shared care units. There are 15 of these units in district general hospitals across the catchment area, and they work closely with the children’s cancer centre. This will complement work by NHS England to agree a list of chemotherapy drugs that can be given at shared care units. Both will increase the range of treatments available closer to home.

Evelina London is also making sure the future centre meets the needs of patients, families and staff.  High-level floorplans have been developed for the children’s cancer ward, day treatment and outpatient spaces, with input from 20+ recent engagement sessions with staff, parents, and children’s cancer charities. The plans also take account of detailed feedback from the consultation.

NHS England London Medical Director, Dr Chris Streather, said: “A huge amount of work is underway to prepare for this positive step forward for children’s cancer care. We are very grateful to everyone who is contributing to this work.”

Avey Bhatia, Chief Nurse, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Senior Responsible Owner for Evelina London’s Children’s Cancer Principal Treatment Centre Programme, said: “The programme to ensure the safe transfer of children’s cancer services to Evelina London is well and truly underway, and gaining momentum all the time. We are working with patients, parents, staff and charities to ensure the future children’s cancer centre at Evelina London gives the best possible care for children with cancer.”

Other areas of focus for the implementation are:

• ensuring as many as possible of the highly-experienced and expert staff from the current service transfer to the future centre at Evelina London and recruiting to fill any gaps
• building on the strengths of the existing service and developing the steps children will follow at every stage of their cancer journey so they receive the very best care
• ensuring a smooth transition to new ways of working for children’s cancer research, while maintaining really strong research. A dedicated team will help Evelina London safely manage risks associated with these changes, and make the most of the new opportunities for research that will come from being in a specialist children’s hospital.

Benefits of the change

The future children’s cancer centre at Evelina London will bring together expert staff from the current service run by The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with Evelina London’s specialist teams. The future centre will:

• comply with the national service specification for Principal Treatment Centres with all the benefits that will bring
• build on the many strengths of the existing children’s cancer service
• be capable of giving best quality care to achieve world-class outcomes for children with cancer for decades to come. 

Recommendations agreed at the decision-making meeting and advice from the Mayor of London will help with this.

Background

Roles

Evelina London is focusing on ensuring very specialist children’s cancer services transfer safely to the children’s hospital when the time comes. They will be part of its existing outstanding-rated children’s services. Evelina London is using feedback from the public consultation and working closely with partners, patients and families, staff and other stakeholders to develop these plans.

NHS England is overseeing this work and other aspects of the reconfiguration.

More information

www.evelinalondon.nhs.uk/childrenscancer

www.transformationpartners.nhs.uk/childrenscancercentre/key-information