On 27 May, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust became the first dedicated children’s Trust in the country to be recognised as an Advanced Foundation Trust. It is one of only six organisations named in this first wave by NHS England, and the status takes effect from 1 June 2026.

Congratulations.

Advanced Foundation Trust status is the new mark of excellence for NHS providers. It is given to organisations with strong leadership, quality governance, financial sustainability, and a record of continuous improvement. For a children’s Trust to be first among them says something about Alder Hey that anyone who has worked with the Trust already knows. The standard is set by its people. The expertise, care, and persistence of Alder Hey’s staff, volunteers, and partners is what earned this, at a moment when almost nothing about running an NHS organisation is easy.

Freedom, and what you do with it

Advanced Foundation Trust status brings greater freedom to make decisions locally and to move faster on the things that matter most to patients. As John Grinnell, the Trust’s Chief Executive, put it, that freedom carries a clear responsibility to use it well. For Alder Hey, that means staying focused on improving the health and life chances of children and young people, especially those facing the greatest inequalities.

The status also gives the Trust more room to build momentum behind Vision 2030, its multi-award-winning strategy developed with STRASYS to create a healthier, happier, and fairer future for children.

A strategy built around what children need

Over five years of work with Alder Hey, we helped the Trust do something unusual. Instead of organising its strategy, and how it works day to day, around service lines and specialties, the way almost every hospital does, Alder Hey organised it around how best to meet the needs of children.

Children and families were involved in a dialogue to understand what they needed and wanted. Four needs came through clearly. Vision 2030 is built around those four needs, not around departments. It is population segmentation seen through children’s eyes rather than through clinical taxonomy. That shift has unlocked better care, stronger productivity, and more sustainable services, and it has begun to break down the traditional silos between them.

Our part was to help turn children’s voices and the Trust’s own data into a strategy that could be acted on. The credit for the vision, and for living it every day, belongs to Alder Hey.

What comes next

Advanced Foundation Trust status is not a finish line. It is more room to make the changes that need to be made, with greater autonomy.

We will keep working with Alder Hey to make Vision 2030 real for children and families, across Cheshire and Merseyside and the wider system the Trust serves. The model Alder Hey has built, a strategy organised around the people it serves, is one that systems across the country and beyond are now looking to learn from. We are proud to help carry that thinking further, in this country and internationally.

Congratulations to everyone at the Trust. We are honoured to be part of the journey, and looking forward to the next chapter.

STRASYS is the Decision Intelligence engine for healthcare. We help leaders see the whole system, make confident decisions, and build organisations around the people they serve. We have worked alongside Alder Hey on Vision 2030 as part of our long-term partnership.

Frequently asked questions

It is NHS England’s new mark of excellence for the highest-performing NHS providers, recognising strong leadership, quality governance, financial sustainability, and a record of continuous improvement. It grants greater local decision-making freedom and is reviewed every five years. Alder Hey is one of the first six trusts to be recognised, and the first dedicated children’s Trust.

It is Alder Hey’s strategy to build a healthier, happier, and fairer future for children. Rather than organising around departments and specialties, Vision 2030 is organised around four needs that children themselves described: get me well, personalise my care, bring the future, and improve my life chances.

We worked alongside Alder Hey over five years, helping turn children’s voices and the Trust’s own data into the population segmentation that underpins Vision 2030. The strategy and its delivery belong to Alder Hey; our role was to help make the decisions behind it clear and defensible.

Grouping a population by shared needs and behaviours rather than by service line, diagnosis, or professional group. It reveals patterns that traditional reporting cannot, and it underpins how STRASYS helps systems organise care and workforce around the people they serve.