Chair 4 life – Children Wheelchair Design

Children Wheelchair

Renfrew Group, in partnership with the NHS unveiled the innovative modular children wheelchair ‘Chair 4 Life’ system designed to address the unmet needs of disabled children and young adults at NHS Expo in April 2013

The Chair 4 Life (C4L) initiative was developed by the NHS National Innovation Centre (NIC) in response to clear statements of clinical needs from users, carers and health experts.

The priority need was identified in the Department of Health’s ‘Innovation Health & Wealth’ report to create a specification for a wheelchair, that would, be easily adaptable for a growing child, improve quality and provision of equipment, promote independence and improve a child’s quality of life.

chair 4 life
Chair 4 life
chair for life

Chair 4 Life – Modular Paediatric Powered Wheelchair

Addresses the physical and social demands of 80 percent of pediatric, powered wheelchair users aged 4 to 18 years old.

A universal modular platform can be updated and modified with a variety of standard attachments and bespoke ones.

It can be modified quickly to accommodate monitoring and care equipment, extra storage and accessories.

The system also gives third party manufacturers the ability to provide upgrade features within the fixed base platform.

Through close teamwork and engagement with users and key stakeholders, Renfrew’s inclusive design approach identified how best to address the usability problems.

This ensured that the Chair 4 life design prioritized the needs of the users and carers first. Additionally, it radically redefined possibilities for prescription, manufacture, and supply.

Chair 4 life - children wheelchair design
New Design Yearbook 2018
Chair for life

User Centred Design

The Wheelchair has been developed with NHS England as part of its Innovation, Health and Welfare Programme.

The resultant Chair 4 Life – children wheelchair presents the concept of a compact universal, modular powered wheelchair system.

This system allows wide specification to cater for the physical and social demands of a user’s life, capable of addressing the needs of at least 80% of paediatric users aged 4 to 18 years for powered wheelchairs.

Emphasis has been placed on producing a user centred design that adapts to an individual’s growing needs, with a seat and components that grow with the child, and in a design that is compact and lightweight.

With the move towards new procurement processes, managed healthcare, tighter funding, and the emerging ‘Any Qualified Providers ‘arrangement.

The universal modular platform is designed to increase flexibility for provision to all users and suppliers.

Wheelchair Design Feature

The other design features include vertical lift as standard – a feature demanded by young users, to allow eye level interaction with peers, which will facilitate social and educational development and improve feelings of dignity and independence.

An adjustable wheelbase ensures adaptability for indoor and outdoor conditions as well as the option for compactness giving greater maneuverability in small spaces.

The Chair 4 Life – children wheelchair has been developed into a working prototype which is being addressed as a production proposition.

It was extremely competitive, with over 400 entries to the awards from 30 countries, but the judges felt that the Chair 4 Life innovation was amongst the best – The IET Innovation Awards Team.

Children-wheelchair-design