More than 300 children and parents from across Calderdale, Kirklees and beyond all visited Eureka! recently for a hands-on careers event led by Calderdale Health and Care Academy. The day brought together multiple teams from across CHFT including, therapists, midwives and students.

Each service ran interactive stalls on the first floor of Eureka! to give home-educated children a chance to explore healthcare roles through play and interaction. Calderdale College were also in attendance, bringing with them virtual reality (VR) headsets to use for basic science concepts and were practising CPR on mannequins.

Our teams in Maternity were in the baby clinic area, where they were demonstrating listening to a baby's heartbeat, urinalysis using juice, and caring for a baby. and using the scales and baby models Eureka! has on display.

Head of Widening Participation, Rebecca Beaumont, helped organise the event and said: "Bringing this event to life with our amazing CHFT teams was a real privilege. Giving children the chance to explore healthcare careers through play helps them see that these roles are accessible to everyone. The enthusiasm on the day was incredible and the feedback from families shows just how valuable these opportunities are. Thank you to all the teams who made it possible.”

Therapy Services Manager, Carly Hartshorn, said: “A huge thank you to our fantastic teams from children’s therapies, children’s community nursing, play work and midwifery for the considerable planning and work that went into running such an engaging and interactive event for families. 

"A brilliant additional outcome from the day was being able to share clinical advice and support with families, help them to understand how to access our services, as well as providing a space for colleagues from different teams to meet one another, establish relationships and consider shared working opportunities for the future."

Feedback from participants has been incredibly positive, with parents saying:

"The staff were amazing with my autistic daughter and she engaged so positively in discussions and activities with them. She’s only five but this was a key part of our day."

"They were lovely and helpful to talk to. They had a lot of time for both of my kids and really engaged with them. The speech therapists were really kind, understanding and helped us with advice and knowledge. They spent a lot of time with my daughter and gave me some tips."

"Lovely activity with speech therapists where children were drawing and they engaged with them on the floor."

"It was really interesting meeting different professions within health. My daughter asked lots of questions about their role and found it very informative. The hands-on activities at different stalls were a bonus!"