Children & Young People

On these pages you can find out more about why we need children and young people to help with our research studies. You can also find details on what it is like to take part in a clinical trial, along with a teenager's experience of being involved in a past study.

What is our research all about?

Most of our studies test new medicines in children.

In the past children and young people didn't take part in this kind of research very often. This meant that there wasn't a lot of information about how much of any medicine children should take, how well it worked and what the side effects were.

Now Doctors and Nurses know a lot more about medicine for children. More research is now carried out into these medicines - greatly helped by our dedicated facility and other similar research facilities around the country.

Many of our participants are children who have genetic or long-term conditions: participating in a study with us is usually similar to attending hospital for their usual treatment. We may ask to do additional tests or health assessments so we can measure how the treatment is affecting their development (hopefully positively!).

We always carry out our research bearing in mind the comfort and needs of our participants. We are very aware that without our participants' help, we wouldn't be able to carry out the research, meaning we wouldn't be able to bring advances in medicine to every patient who might benefit.

The centre covers research for "children" of all ages. One of our recent successes was a study researching prevention of type 2 diabetes in high-risk teenagers. One of the participants in the study, 17 year old Ambreen Yasin, shares her experience of taking part in the diabetes study.

What is it like to take part?

If you agree to take part in our research you will become a 'participant'.

First of all we will need to ask you and your family questions to find out about your health. This may include questions about any medicines that you take and anything that you may be allergic to.

Sometimes we may need to do a few tests, like measuring your height, weight and blood pressure. We may also need to collect samples of blood and urine.

Some research studies may need you to take a medicine. Others could include taking X-rays of your bones, testing your strength or asking you to fill out a survey.

Each study is different and our specialist children's team will be able to answer all the questions you have about taking part.

What is the place like?

Our unit has six beds; four in the big ward area and two in single rooms. Each bed has a pull down bed at the side for parents. We also have a room for daytime appointments.

We’ve made our unit as bright, colourful and relaxing as possible for you and your family. We have lots of toys and games, as well as TVs, DVD players and Playstation 3s.