Kicking Up Our Heels

Description of impact

Kicking Up Our Heels, a creative project for parents/carers at Great Ormond Street Hospital co-led by artists Emily Underwood-Lee and Brian Lobel has exceeded the expectations initially set out by GOSH Arts and the projects wider creative team.
The project has changed the attitudes and behavior of staff across the hospital in the following ways:
• Created space for clinical staff to share practice and learn from each other about their approaches to caring for the parents/carers of sick children
• Encouraged non clinical staff groups to consider and discuss how they support parents/carers better whilst they are at GOSH
• Raised awareness across the hospital of the importance of supporting parents/carers
• Demonstrated the way creative consultation can effectively and efficiently gather information
The project has/will feed into the following building projects:
• The design brief for the Children’s Cancer Centre, a new £258 million clinical building
• A patient experience led review of the parent/career spaces in the Morgan Stanley Clinical Building and Premier Inn Clinical Building
• A workshop for staff based on the Kicking Up Our Heels methodology to support staff wellbeing at Great Ormond Street Hospital

How did your research contribute?

I designed and led the project in collaboration with Brian Lobel.

Who is affected?

parents and carers at Great Ormond Street Hospital
child patients at Great Ormond Street Hospital
staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital

Impact date	Jan 2019 → Jan 2020
Category of impact	Quality of life impacts, Cultural impacts, Social impacts
Impact level	In progress