Children's Clinical Research

We believe that all children and their families should have the opportunity to take part in high quality clinical research.

Our children’s clinical research team provides unique support services to clinicians who are undertaking clinical trials to benefit patients. We often take the lead in ground-breaking local, national and international research projects enabling tomorrow’s treatments to be available for future generations.

We put children and their families at the heart of our work, providing a relaxed, friendly atmosphere which encourages an open and trusting relationship between children, families, carers and ourselves.

We have signed up to the Infants’, Children’s and Young People’s Child Health Research Charter, which was developed by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to provide guiding principles for working with and involving children and young people in research.

For more information contact us on 0115 924 9924 Ext: 70691 or Ext: 70689

 

Why do we need children’s clinical research?

Clinical trials are an effective way to compare different approaches to preventing and treating illness and health problems. Many treatments that are now in common use were first tested in clinical trials.

The need for involving children in clinical research in particular is explained in the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health document Turning the Tide: Harnessing the power of child health research, which states that: "Children are not small adults; they need biomedical and health services research that takes account of their changing physiology, and addresses their problems directly, generating evidence to improve the quality of the treatments and healthcare they receive, and the policies that affect their wellbeing."

We take part in children’s clinical research to enable us to offer the highest quality, evidence-based care and treatments for our patients, to help identify ‘at risk’ groups and prevent disease, to improve our services and to share our knowledge and expertise.

Taking part in trials

It's your choice

Taking part in any clinical trial is completely voluntary. If you decide not to take part it will not affect your child’s standard of treatment and care in any way.

If you do decide to take part, you can change your mind at any time without having to give a reason.

Giving consent to take part

The consent process is strict and only parents with legal responsibility can provide consent. For example, an unmarried father can only provide consent if he either:

  • jointly registered the birth with the mother (after 2003)
  • has a parental responsibility agreement with the mother, or
  • has a parental responsibility order from the court.

Find trials

You can find details of our latest research trials at NUH on our research web pages here: https://www.nuh.nhs.uk/live-trials