County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has become the first organisation in the North East to receive Sophie’s Legacy Approved Hospital recognition after improving food, parent meals and seven-day play support for children.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has become the first organisation in the North East to receive Sophie’s Legacy Approved Hospital recognition, after putting three practical changes for children and their families into place across its children’s services.
The recognition covers meals for parents who stay overnight with a child, a menu designed specifically for children, and access to Play Specialist support seven days a week. The Trust says the changes are now embedded across its services, including at Darlington Memorial Hospital, where the recognition was formally presented alongside University Hospital of North Durham.
A child’s practical ideas carried forward
Sophie Fairall was 10 when she died in September 2021 after treatment for a rare childhood cancer. During her final year, she identified three things she wanted hospitals to improve for other children and their families: better food for children, meals for parents staying beside them and Play Specialist support every day of the week.
Her mum, Charlotte Fairall, established Sophie’s Legacy to turn those ideas into changes in hospital care. County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is the third organisation nationally to receive the Approved Hospital recognition, as well as the first in the North East.
For families using children’s services in Darlington, the changes are deliberately practical. Parents who remain in hospital overnight with their child can now receive meals, while a dedicated children’s menu was formally introduced in March 2026. The Trust says the menu took around a year to develop and was shaped with feedback from children and families.
Play support seven days a week
The Trust has also established seven-day Play Specialist provision. In children’s healthcare, specialist and therapeutic play can be used to help young patients understand what is happening, prepare for procedures and cope with the unfamiliar routines of a hospital stay.
The work has involved Children’s Services, Play Specialists, Catering and Facilities teams. The Trust says its catering service prepares around 18,000 meals from scratch each week across its sites and carries out weekly food tasting to monitor quality and consistency. Its patient catering information also confirms that the children’s menu was developed with dietitians and ward managers in support of Sophie’s Legacy.
Charlotte Fairall said the changes reflect the things Sophie was clear she wanted to improve. She said making sure parents can eat while staying with a sick child, giving children food they want to eat and providing access to Play Specialists every day can make a significant difference during a difficult hospital stay.
Recognition for changes already in place
The award is not simply a promise of future work. The three requirements behind the recognition are already being delivered by the Trust, which is why the story matters locally. For families arriving at Darlington Memorial Hospital with a child, they affect ordinary parts of hospital life that can become unusually important when a stay lasts for days rather than hours.
The Trust announced the recognition on 24 August. The Hospital Caterers Association separately reported the award the same day, confirming that County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is the first organisation in the region and the third nationally to receive the Sophie’s Legacy Approved Hospital status.
