Evelina London Children’s Hospital has been chosen as the future location for the Children’s Cancer Centre for south London and much of the south east of England.

This is the decision of leaders for NHS England (London and South East regions), taken at their decision making meeting on 14 March 2024. It comes after a rigorous process to decide the location of the future centre, including a public consultation and an options-appraisal process involving clinical advisers, parents, charities, nurses and research staff.

A specialist children’s hospital which treats 120,000 children a year, Evelina London’s wide range of services, support for hospitals across its catchment area to look after poorly young patients, and strong performance in research are just some of the factors that showed it is the right place for the future Children’s Cancer Centre. Its experienced, expert teams will work with The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which provide the current centre, to minimise disruption for patients and ensure a smooth handover.

NHS England, London Medical Director Dr Chris Streather said:

“I would like to thank everyone who took part in our public consultation, and for the valuable feedback we received.

This is a positive step forward for children’s cancer care – at the new location, children who need intensive care will be able to get it on site and the future centre will stand ready to give cutting-edge treatments that require intensive care on site, like other major centres worldwide.

Service reconfiguration is rarely easy, but the decision taken today will ensure that children with cancer in south London and much of the south east will continue to receive the best possible care now and into the future.”

Very specialist children’s cancer services will move from The Royal Marsden to Evelina London, once everything required for the future centre is in place. This will not be before October 2026, and there will be no sudden changes to children’s care in the meantime.

As part of this move, it was agreed that conventional radiotherapy services will in future be provided at University College Hospital in central London.

More information is on NHS England’s website.

On 14 March 2024, leaders of NHS England (London and South East regions) chose Evelina London Children’s Hospital as the future location of very specialist cancer services for children living in south London and much of south east England, with conventional radiotherapy at University College Hospital in central London.

Since then, Evelina London and NHS England have been working with partners to jointly plan and put in place arrangements for the safe transfer of these services to the specialist children’s hospital.

Evelina London is focusing on ensuring very specialist children’s cancer services transfer safely to the children’s hospital when the time comes. They will be part of its existing outstanding-rated children’s hospital services. Evelina London is using feedback from the public consultation, and working closely with partners, patients and families, staff and other stakeholders, to develop these plans.

NHS England is overseeing this work and other aspects of the reconfiguration.

The move is not expected to happen before October 2026 and there will be no sudden changes to children’s cancer care in the meantime.

NHS England London Medical Director Dr Chris Streather said: “A huge amount of work is underway to prepare for this positive step forward for children’s cancer care. We are very grateful to everyone who is contributing to this work.”

Avey Bhatia, Chief Nurse, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Senior Responsible Owner for Evelina London’s Children’s Cancer Principal Treatment Centre Programme, said: “The programme to ensure the safe transfer of children’s cancer services to Evelina London is well and truly underway and gaining momentum all the time. We are working with patients, parents, staff and charities to ensure the future children’s cancer centre at Evelina London gives the best possible care for children with cancer.”

February 2025 update: Over the summer, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care was asked to ‘call in’ NHS England’s decision on where the future Principal Treatment Centre for children with cancer living in south London and much of south east England will be. ‘Calling in’ a decision means the Secretary of State decides to take a close look at a planned change to NHS services and whether to proceed with the proposal, modify it, or take other action.

On 24^th February 2025, the Secretary of State told NHS England that, having looked carefully at all the information provided and considered it against the criteria for call-in, he has decided not to call in the decision taken by the leaders of NHS England (London and South East regions) in March 2024.

This means that very specialist cancer services for children living in south London and much of south east England will transfer to Evelina London Children’s Hospital, with radiotherapy at University College Hospital, as planned. The move is not expected to happen before October 2026 and there will be no sudden changes to children’s cancer care in the meantime.