Clown S'Cool Evaluation: 2022 Pilot

Clown S’Cool was developed in response to a consultation with children and young people who have Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) which highlighted that children and young people wanted to meet other children with the same condition. The programme was developed by Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity (ECHC) in partnership with Hearts & Minds, a charity which sends Clowndoctors into the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP). The intention of Clown S’Cool was to help children and young people with IBD to address feelings of shame and embarrassment associated with their condition using comedy while meeting others with similar experiences to themselves to benefit from social connection and peer learning. These challenges associated with IBD were identified in conversation and activity during these consultations with the children and young people. It was hoped that participation in Clown S’Cool would build self-esteem and increase confidence leading to a reduction in feelings of loneliness and isolation by empowering them to feel more comfortable and take control of their own narrative using the tools they learn in Clown S’Cool. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the pilot of Clown S’Cool which was delivered in July 2022 during the summer school break. The programme ran Monday-Friday and there were two cohorts, these were ‘under 12’ and ‘12+’. Participants were invited to take part by being contacted by the ECHC youth team. Recruitment was challenging and in the end 4 under 12s took part and 3 young people 12+ took part. There may be many reasons for the recruitment challenges including the programme clashing with family holidays of some children who were interested, difficulty in committing to a whole week in families where travel to the hospital is challenging along with some nervousness around the ‘clown’ theme. There are many misconceptions of what clowns are in contemporary society which may have negatively impacted how children/young people and their families viewed the prospect of attending Clown S’Cool.


Clown S’Cool was delivered in one of the classrooms in Little France School based in RHCYP. By attending Clown S’Cool in the hospital that these children frequently visit they had the opportunity to explore the hospital and do things there which were not related to their treatment or appointments. This, it was hoped, would make the hospital feel more welcoming, less scary and give the children more power in a space where they frequently do not have any.


This report will begin with a review of literature around the experiences of those living with IBD and the preliminary evidence which highlights the potential of arts based interventions in supporting patients’ psychological difficulties associated with their condition. It will then review the baseline experience of the participants in this intervention before outlining what happened at Clown S’Cool from the perspective of the author, who also participated in Clown S’Cool. From this key themes and observations will be identified to understand the successes of the programme. Feedback from families and the children and young people will then be reflected on. Finally challenges, learnings and understanding the impact that this programme had will be considered against the strategic outcomes of Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity.