East Lancashire Hospitals provides a welcoming environment for children and young people using our services.
This page is for children and young people where you will find information that will be useful for you during your stay in hospital.
Follow the buttons below to find more information for children and young people:
Additional information
A young carer is someone under the age of 18 who helps provide regular care and support for a family member, relative or friend with a disability, illness, mental health condition or a problem with alcohol or drugs.
Support is available for young carers to help them look after their loved ones and give them time to enjoy their childhood.
Please click on the following links for further information on the support available:
- In Blackburn with Darwen support is available from Child Action Northwest Blackburn with Darwen Carers Service
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In Lancashire, support is available from Barnardos
What does safeguarding mean?
'Safeguarding' refers to all the things we do to make sure you are kept safe from any harm.
Safeguarding means that staff when you visit hospital will:
- Protect you from harm
- Make sure that nothing stops you being healthy or developing properly
- Make sure that you are looked after
If you are worried about something, you can talk to any adult at the hospital that you trust.
This could be your nurse, doctor, health care assistant or any other staff member. If you need to talk, we will listen.
We respect you and want to keep you safe, so we will do our best to help you to feel safe and happy.
We think it is important for you to know where to get help if you are worried or unhappy about something, and we will do our best to spot if there is a problem.
We will always make time to listen and talk if you need us, please remember:
- You are important to us
- It's never your fault if someone is hurting you
- There is always someone that can help you and you will not be in trouble
- If someone is hurting you, they may also be hurting someone else, so it is important that you tell someone to make it stop and know that you will be kept safe
- Every child should enjoy the right to a happy and safe childhood - do not be scared to tell someone if there is anything worrying you
It is important you tell someone as soon as someone starts hurting or harming you or you think that this is happening to someone else.
Speaking to someone like your parent, carer, nurse or doctor will mean that we can make sure the abuse stops and doesn’t happen again.
In every hospital there is always somebody who has the responsibility to keep you safe and all staff have to tell that person if they are worried about you. Staff are taught how to keep children safe as it is the most important part of their job.
If you feel you need to speak to anyone after being discharged from the hospital you can always contact child line 0800 1111, speak with someone you can trust such as a teacher, college tutor or youth worker if you are in immediate danger always call 999.