Medicines for Children awarded ‘highly commended’ at the HSJ awards

• In March 2025, Medicines for Children was named as the runner up entry in a strong category for “Best Provider of Digital Healthcare Services” by the prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) Partnership awards. You can read more about the awards here: www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk/news/hsj-awards-2025

Partnership with NPPG’s Cardiac Specialist Interest Group

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of a number of specialist paediatric cardiac pharmacists from the NPPG’s Cardiac Specialist Interest Group (SIG), 13 new cardiac medicines information leaflets have been developed and published on Medicines for Children. The full list are available to view here.

These new medicines leaflets mean that families now have access to trusted, up‑to‑date guidance on their child’s cardiac medicines—information they previously may not have had—helping them feel more confident, informed, and supported when managing medicines at home.

This group of specialist cardiac pharmacists are now working with us to review our existing medicines leaflets to make sure they remain up to date and accurate. We are also working with them to update our current QR code poster for medicines used to treat heart conditions.

The full collection of QR code posters, which were updated and increased in number due to user requests throughout 2025, can be viewed here: www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk/qr-code-posters.

In 2026, we hope to continue our work with other NPPG Specialist Interest Groups; for Neonatology and for Paediatric and Neonatal Gastroenterology (PANG).

New medicines information leaflets published

In addition to the 13 new cardiac medicine leaflets, 5 medicines leaflets were also published in 2025 for other conditions.

1. Co-careldopa for dystonia – here
2. Gabapentin for dystonia – here
3. Ipratropium bromide for asthma – here
4. Omalizumab for hives – here
5. Trihexyphenidyl hydrochloride for dystonia – here

Thank you to the paediatricians, paediatric pharmacists and paediatric nurses who volunteered their time and expertise to develop these resources in 2025.

A new member joins the programme board to represent Primary Care

The Medicines for Children programme board is delighted to announce that, after more than a year of advertising, we have successfully appointed a new Primary Care representative to our board.

We are very pleased to welcome practicing GP, Dr Vinnie Mishra, to Medicines for Children. His insight and experience in Primary Care will be invaluable as we continue to develop high‑quality, accessible medicines information to support all families.

Dr Mishra joins the existing Medicines for Children board (shown below) which includes representatives from the three partner organisations – RCPCH, NPPG and WellChild – alongside independent advisors who bring additional expertise beyond these groups.

Members of the board in 2025

Assessing the impact of Medicines for Children

Throughout 2025, we encouraged anyone who has used Medicines for Children to take part in the ‘user impact review’ of the MfC website and its resources. This review was undertaken by a third party company with expertise in user engagement and was looking to explore the real world impact of our information for families and how we might improve our resources in the future.

In total, 198 people completed our user survey (105 healthcare professionals and 93 parents and carers), with 70 of these people agreeing to take part in a follow up interview about their experience of using Medicines for Children.

The feedback received from both parents/carers and from health care professionals was very positive and users seem to value the information we provide. The full findings are now being analysed and written up into a comprehensive report. They will be used for future funding applications and to ensure we are moving in the right direction to keep meeting our users’ needs.

Thank you to everyone who gave up their time to provide feedback on Medicines for Children via the user survey or the in-depth interviews.

Partnership working in 2025

It was a productive year for exploring and building succesful working partnerships with organisations and groups working to provide healthcare infomation for families.

Kidzmed

• The Kidzmed programme supports children and young people to learn the important life skill of swallowing tablets through a simple six‑step technique, presented in accessible cartoons and videos.
• Originally developed at the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle, Kidzmed has since expanded through partnerships nationwide.
• Additional helpful guidance and resources for parents and carers – including tips, techniques, and downloadable materials – are available via both Kidzmed and the Medicines for Children website here: www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk/news/helping-your-child-to-swallow-tablets-new-resources-from-kidzmed

• Another important partnership in 2025 was with the Eolas digital platform – a central, searchable hub for clinical guidance and resources.
• By being integrated into Eolas, Medicines for Children’s leaflets can now be accessed and shared more easily by healthcare professionals, enabling them to provide trusted medicines information to parents and carers. This supports efficient information‑sharing, reduces time spent searching multiple sources, and promotes consistent guidance across regions.
• This collaboration strengthens the reach and impact of Medicines for Children’s resources within everyday clinical practice. You can read more about this partnership here: www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk/news/link-to-medical-platform

Children’s Liver Disease Foundation

• After being contacted by specialist paediatric pharmacists working with children with liver conditions, a collaborative partnership was established with the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation to improve support for children with liver conditions and their families.
• The plan is to link the Foundation’s disease focused leaflets with Medicines for Children’s medicine specific information, with an aim to create a more complete set of resources for families navigating complex treatments. The collaboration has expanded to include three specialist paediatric liver units in the UK, enabling a coordinated effort to identify gaps in existing medicines information and jointly prioritise the development of new leaflets.
• This partnership will strengthen the quality and consistency of medicines guidance available to families, helping them to safely administer treatments, build confidence, and reduce the risk of medication related incidents at home.

‘My Child’s Meds’ – our new medicines management app 

• The app is available to download now from the app store: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/my-childs-meds/id6689516313
• It is currently only available to download on Apple devices (iPhone or iPad) whilst we seek further funding to expand the app to Android devices.

Celebrating our 20th anniversary 

In September 2026, Medicines for Children will be celebrating 20 years since we first started providing information to families on children’s medicines. During this time, our medicines information has been downloaded by more than 20 million people across the UK and around the world.

We will be using this anniversary to celebrate our key achievements over the last 20 years, and also to further promote Medicines for Children so that all parents or carers knows about the resources we offer if and when they need our support.

Volunteers needed!

A top priority for the Medicines for Children team for 2026 is reviewing and updating all of our 240 published medicines leaflets. If any clinicians or experienced paediatric prescribers would like to work with us to review the information on a specific medicine, please contact the programme manager on medicines.leaflets@rcpch.ac.uk

Thank you everyone

The MfC team plan to continue improving and updating our information resources and, as always, we would love to hear from you with your ideas or feedback on our work at medicines.leaflets@rcpch.ac.uk

Thank you all for a great year!