The current children hospital building designs will create a well equipped, clean and functional clinical environment. However, without art it will be a rather bleak patient environment. There is a huge amount of medical evidence that shows the hospital environment is very important - access to art and music can help patients cope with being in hospital better, recover quicker by helping to reduce stress and anxiety.

Vital Arts is one of the most successful arts and health organsations in the UK and will deliver an integrated arts strategy for the children's hospital that will commission high quality art to transform the hospital into a positve, holistic healing space for children and their families. Hospitals can be frightening places - alienating and depressing, the inclusion of carefully commissioned art has been found to have a profound effect in supporting patients, families and clincial staff.