Building a Digital Strategy for a Children's Hospice

Helen and Douglas House was the UK’s first children’s hospice and continues to lead the way in paediatric palliative care. Their mission is to help terminally ill children live life to the fullest, providing a place where families can spend precious time together and create happy memories during their children’s short lives.

While their clinical, medical, and social care services are exemplary, Helen & Douglas House recognised that they were not fully embracing digital technologies to meet the evolving needs of younger families and children.

They asked us to assess where they were on their digital journey, design a digital vision for the future, and create a strategy to help them get there – all while ensuring that face-to-face personal services remained at the heart of their offer.

There was strong commitment from the leadership team to evolve digitally.

We conducted a comprehensive digital audit, engaging more than 30 staff across disciplines, including clinical, medical, operational, finance, retail, and fundraising. Staff had diverse digital capabilities, needs, and aspirations, which we captured through bespoke 1:1 interviews and a customised digital skills audit tailored to Helen & Douglas House.

Alongside the staff audits, we completed a technology audit and organisation-wide analysis, mapping their current position against our Digital Maturity Model.

Through a series of collaborative workshops with sector specialists, we helped the team define their digital ambitions and future state. Together, we identified strategic themes and guiding principles to underpin their new digital strategy.

The final deliverables included:

• A comprehensive digital strategy

• A detailed three-year roadmap of priority initiatives aligned to organisational strategy

• Support for early delivery steps, including governance set-up, training programmes, hiring a Director of Digital, and planning new systems and processes

Helen & Douglas House now has:

• A united leadership and trustee team, aligned around a shared digital vision

• Organisation-wide engagement and momentum for digital transformation

• A clear strategy and roadmap guiding how digital can enhance and extend their impact, while preserving the personal care they are known for

Together, we are helping them build the digital foundations needed to continue leading in paediatric palliative care for future generations.