The facility provides care for children and young people from birth to around 16 years of age and is managed by NHS Lothian.

In 2005, NHS Lothian decided to develop plans to move the Sick Kids from its present site to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France on the south-east edge of the city.

[2] The hospital was procured under the Scottish government's non-profit distributing model in 2015.

[14] It will also accommodate the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, which will move across from the Western General Hospital, and the Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), which will move from the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

[15] The hospital is accessible by public transport via local bus services[16] and there are several car parks on site.