Healthtech centre to advance at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park

A lease agreement between the city council and Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has been rubber-stamped, allowing plans for the National Centre for Child Health Technology to move forward.

Members of Sheffield City Council’s finance policy committee have voted to approve the lease arrangement with the trust for the council-owned site.

The NCCHT is already consented. Scarborough Group, which is Sheffield’s development partner for the masterplan, last month brought in experienced consultant Ian Sanderson as it looks to move up through the gears.

The intention is for the new centre to help create a healthier future for children and young people through innovation, technology and outstanding care.

SCC said it will have all the dedicated spaces and facilities needed to design, create and test new child health technologies. This will include a gait and motion laboratory including a Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN), and a creative manufacturing zone with 3D printing, robotics, laser-cutting and other tools to develop prototypes.

There will also be an Intelligent Home and Intelligent Ward which will create simulated real-life environments for testing technologies.

Cllr Zahira Naz, chair of the Finance Policy Committee, said: “This is a crucial step in the process of bringing the National Centre for Child Health Technology to life. Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is one of three dedicated children’s hospital trusts in the UK and this National Centre will take their work to the next level.

“The new Centre also forms a crucial part of our regeneration of Attercliffe, alongside the Waterside project which will see around 1,000 new homes built, and the transformation of the former Adelphi Cinema and it builds on the success we’ve already seen at the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park.”

Sheffield City Council successfully applied for £9m from the government’s Local Government Fund to help Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust with the project with a further £6m grant coming from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and £2m from The Children’s Hospital Charity.

John Williams, deputy chief executive of the NHS trust, said: “It’s great to be working in partnership with the Council on this inspiring project that will help create a healthier future for children and young people locally, regionally and nationally. The Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is a really unique space that we hope will be a fantastic home to progress innovation and technology in children’s healthcare.”