How helping hands from the IT industry are giving something back

Seven-year old Julie was scared. Her face had changed shape because of a complicated illness and she was afraid her classmates would not recognise her when she left hospital.

She was so ill that doctors had to isolate her from other children for months.

Going back was going to be tough. But life was made a little easier by some IT professionals when they gave her a videoconference kit.

Janette Steel, head teacher of Chelsea Children's Hospital School, says: "She'd been in and out of hospital since she was born. The kids from her class went to a videoconferencing centre so they could talk to her. She could explain the reason for the drip in her arm and her illness. She then wasn't as scared of going back to school then as they'd all got used to her."

Julie is not the girl's real name but the story is true and one of efforts from the Worshipful Company of IT (WCIT) workers to make sick children's lives more comfortable.

Steel adds: "Being on your own as a young person is absolutely terrifying. If one of them contracts a contagious bacteria, they can no longer interact with each other so that means the have to go into isolation. So at St Mary's we set up videoconferencing. In each room there is access to a laptop and a web cam.

"Many museums have got videoconferencing sessions set up for us too. So these children can go to the Science Museum over a video conference and be an astronaut. This is life changing for our people.

"We believe in helping people to know about ICT. It helps them to know more about their illness and they can research all aspects of their condition. That way they don't become the poor child who's sick but the child with confidence."

The WCIT is a livery company made up of some of the highest-ranking IT professionals in London. Livery companies originated before 1066 and were formed by groups of people involved in the same profession.

Colin Knight, owns a successful financial IT trading outfit. As a senior warden of the WCIT, it was his job to use IT expertise to help disadvantaged children. That was when he met Janette.

He says: "We started off by giving a PC to a child with cystic fibrosis. We did that for a year but Janette said 'I don't want you to do it for one child. I want you to build a school in the hospital'."

Children with cystic fibrosis are often diagnosed at the age of two or three, but can have a short life-expectancy, many dying as young adults.

Knight says: "When in hospital they undergo treatment exercises for months and then go home for six months. Children come from all over Europe. With six months in and out, they lose a lot of time in schooling, so they are disadvantaged in health and education."

The school at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital now has a network of 40 PCs installed. It is a professional outfit monitored by Ofsted and has a 'beacon' ranking.

Knight adds: "Several thousand children go through this school. Every child has to have a programme of learning and assessments. In essence we have been able to bring IT in to schools and the teachers have been able to continue the children's education.

"Because they’ve had this people have been able to do degrees – we've had people write books, do vocational training and aspire to things they would do in their early adult life."

Steel is principal of five children's hospital schools: the Royal Brompton Hospital looks after children and young adults with lung and heart problems; the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital which specialises in neurological complaints and burns; the Cheyne Centre takes in children with cerebral palsy; St Mary's, which caters for children with bone marrow disorders and those who have to be isolated; and Collingham Gardens Child and Family Mental Health Unit.

The WCIT has also put up £50,000 to build a network between these hospitals to link children together and improve their education.

Knight and his team of experts have designed the network with the same resilience as a financial trading floor to ensure nurses are not distracted with IT support issues.

He says: "I provide technology into most of the major trading floors. When you build financial trading systems, these are things that cannot go wrong. We build very resilient systems. We started off thinking if we built this in schools we didn’t want the nurses to have to become IT people.

"We have a number of project managers. We've taken the same computer system so it can restore itself automatically. They are all online maintained remotely. We've tried to do that of all things."

Knight is one of 650 people who belong to the WCIT. And while he has been working with Steel for a number of years, he seems determined to continue trying for disadvantaged children.

He adds: "The only thing that we have is that we're technical practitioners so we give our experience and help.

"Normally these organisations could only do this sort of thing through consultancy. But you have to have an internal champion. Most of this is still run voluntarily. Much of Janette's time is spent raising money. There is probably some message here to lobby government but I had to do something now."