Creative media and games design students at West Nottinghamshire College have been instrumental in creating an information video to help young people and their families access a range of healthcare services.

Working with Nottinghamshire Healthcare’s Preparing for Adulthood (PFA) and Transition Lead in Children and Young People’s Services Shelly Hancock, and PFA admin lead Sarah Cherry, Advanced Diploma Creative Media Practice (Digital Arts and Games Design) students Levi Black-Bordeaux and Olivia Ward put their skills to the test creating a 2D animation film.

The Children and Young People’s Services have developed an online infrastructure to help young people aged 14 and above navigate different areas of health services, working with a range of partners including education and social care as well as seeking feedback from young people and their families.

An information video was one of the ways that they wanted to be able to communicate with young people better about how to access and use services such as accident and emergency, dentists, GPs, learning disability nurses and more. The video is to be part of an ongoing resource library being developed for young people as part of the Preparation for Adulthood and Transition service offer.

In October last year, Nottinghamshire Healthcare liaised with the creative media team with a view to making the video. Students Levi and Olivia worked on creating the character and scene designs, animation and graphics using Adobe Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere, while fellow performing arts students provided the voice-overs.

Design and media learning company specialist Tony Hall said: “The students worked incredibly hard on this project and I was impressed with their professional communications with Shelly to ensure that her project brief was met.

“The final video is something that all students should be proud of, and I have no doubt that this will prove to be a very helpful resource to many young adults who are looking at the range of services they’ll be accessing in the NHS.”

Shelly Hancock said: “We have learned so much about creating important resources such as this animation whilst collaborating with Levi and Olivia, as well as Tony their tutor.

“We are absolutely thrilled with the video, and we’re so happy that young people have been involved in the project. Their insight and perspective are invaluable.

“These resources will hopefully help empower and teach young people key information as they grow towards accessing adult health services. We also aim to produce resources for families who may need to advocate for their son or daughter into adulthood. We can’t wait to get started on creating the next animation with the West Notts team.”

The animation video can be seen on the Preparing for Adulthood and Transition to Adult Health Services page at https://www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/pfa-resources