Heart of the nation: Migration and the making of the NHS – resource pack
This resource has been written by the Migration Museum to support its free online exhibition Heart of the Nation: Migration and the Making of the NHS.
It consists of testimonials from four NHS workers who tell the story of how they came to be living in the UK and working for the National Health Service. Each information sheet comes with a worksheet where pupils can summarise the information they have read. Younger children might also like to colour in the pictures, which were specially created for the Migration Museum by illustrator Jess Nash.
The resource also contains links to a map showing where NHS staff originally come from, and suggestions for follow-up activities, such as writing a letter to your loved ones in your country of origin.
You can download the video introduction to the exhibition here: Heart of the nation: Migration and the making of the NHS.
An extract from the introduction to this resource:
The NHS was created after the Second World War and its mission was to make healthcare available to everyone for free. For hundreds of years previously Britain’s healthcare had been supported by migrants, particularly from Ireland and Central and Eastern Europe. The new and ambitious NHS needed workers on a scale never seen before in Britain. After the Second World War, there weren’t enough medical professionals in Britain to staff the new health service, so Britain actively recruited healthcare workers from across its current and former colonies. This pack tells their stories, alongside stories of people from around the world who have created, shaped and sustained the NHS at all levels over the past 75 years.
