South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System (SYB ICS) hosted their Yorkshire and Humber Child Health Assembly, at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane, on 14 January. The meeting attracted healthcare professionals from a variety of backgrounds across Yorkshire, focussing on the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s (RCPCH) Paediatric 2040 report; their vision for improving child health over the next two decades, including how innovation, new models of care, and improved paediatric services will all play their part, delivered by Professor Russell Viner (President, RCPCH)

The day also heard talks from a number of prominent speakers in the fields of child health and innovation, including an update from the Programme Director of SYB ICS’s Innovation Hub, Aejaz Zahid and Professor Sue Mason, who addressed the burden of unscheduled care across Yorkshire and the Humber’s Accident and Emergency departments.

NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Co-operative (NIHR CYP MedTech) also attended the day to introduce innovation research in the field of child health to delegates, with NIHR CYP MedTech’s Director, Professor Paul Dimitri, delivering a keynote speech.

We also co-delivered several workshops, with our collaborator Dr Gemma Wheeler (Research Associate at Lab4Living, Sheffield Hallam University). The sessions focussed on system innovation for child health and served as a brief introduction for delegates into the field of innovation, using a series of creative thinking tasks to allow the delegates to identify both staff and patient challenges in child health in the present and future, whilst getting them to consider how innovation in their respective work places may begin to solve these challenges, starting the conversation around innovative research in child health.

The day concluded with a summary of the keynotes and workshops and a warm thanks from event organisers, Dr Nicola Jay (Sheffield Children’s Hospital) and Anna Clack (Commissioning Manager, NHS Sheffield CCG).