We gathered your ideas and have designed our first Employers’ Webinar, scheduled to take place in May 2026. This includes your invaluable insights, a case study, and Q&A with a parent and counsellor.
You said – We did
Wherever possible we try to shape the care we offer to the needs of the families we support. At both Christopher's and Shooting Star House you can find feedback points where you can provide feedback an online. All feedback will be considered and we are always looking for ways to help us improve our service. If you'd like to get involved even more you can also join our parents forum.
Latest requests – Updated March 2026
You shared your experiences of support you did (or didn’t) receive at work when your child died. You shared deeply difficult and profound memories, and suggested we create guidance/training for employers. You said this could make a huge difference to bereaved parents.
You said it would be helpful to have a Mum’s WhatsApp group, to ask parents questions, for example about accessible holidays.
We are supporting Shooting Star families who have set up both a Mums and a Dads Whatsapp group. These groups are spaces owned by you where parents can share links and make recommendations. If you’d like to be part of this email familysupport@shootingstar.org.uk
"You'd like to know about our family events and support groups further in advance"
We now aim to give you two months notice of new events rather than one, doubling the amount of time you have to read about events and sign up.
"To meet your spirituality needs, you need to be able to focus on your wellbeing and health. Meditation and mindfulness gives you time and space to breathe."
We have designed a weekly session called Breathe, which is a space you can join in person or online. 45minutes sampling different holistic techniques.
“Connecting with other parents is difficult at our hospice family events, as you need to be focused on providing care to your child.”
Key events will include nurses, carers and support workers, who can be with your child, so you can be a few steps away meeting other parents.
“You’d like to know which children your child gets on with at siblings’ day, so that you can arrange play dates with them”
We now ask the siblings to write down the name of someone that they have enjoyed spending time with, so that we can let you know. This is important in helping them to build their peer network of support.
'We'd like a dedicated space on the website for us'
We’ve revised and updated the information on our website and created a new Family Zone and Bereaved Family Zone.
"We'd like to be able to book more hydrotherapy sessions outside of school hours"
We’ve employed a physio assistant allowing us to offer more bookable Splash! sessions.
"Dads sometimes feel left out, we don't have as much opportunity to visit our child at the hospice"
We’ve started doing more events for fathers, including a new monthly Dads takeaway evening. This is the way
"When my child’s stays at Christopher's I'd like to have their name and photo on their bedroom door so that they know which room is theirs and that it feels like a home-from-home"
We now make sure that there is always a name on the child’s door and we’re working hard to collect photos for everyone as well.
We'd like to be involved in how Shooting Star's Brand evolves
Feedback from families has been incorporated into our new logo. The longer swoosh of the star was chosen over shorter options as you told us that it better reflects the journey that you have with us. The pink dot in the logo is a nod to where we began as it was used in both the CHASE and The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice logos before the two charities merged to become Shooting Star Children’s Hospices.
"You said we should offer young people aged 12 years+ the choice of Arts Therapies or Counselling, to help them with their mental health and wellbeing"
We have created a new Young Person’s Counselling Service, with sessions available at Christopher’s, Shooting Star House and in community venues across West London. If you are a young person and you’re interested in hearing more about counselling for you, email familysupport@shootingstar.org.uk
"You said you would like the option of bringing a pet to some of our events"
We are working to enable this where possible and have created a new form for you to request to bring in your pet.
Feedback
Complaints
If you have a complaint about any aspect of our work you can find details around how to submit a complaint or share a complaint directly via our complaints page
Compliments and Suggestions
If you would like to make a compliment about our service, or suggest something we can do better or differently, you can do that here.
Parents Forum
If you’re interested in helping us shape our services even more, why not become a member of our parents forum. Meetings take place virtually throughout the year.
Language Support
We currently provide support in 15 different languages
As part of our ongoing strategy to support every family, our Family Support team, including counsellors, therapists and family support workers, are proud to be able to offer our bespoke support in a range of languages.
Arabic | Cantonese | English | French | Hindi | Italian | Mandarin | Marathi | Nyanja | Punjabi | Spanish | Tagalog |Tamil | Urdu
In addition, ReciteMe (accessed via Accessibility and Translations button at the top of the website) can translate our website content into over 100 languages.
