Shooting Star honoured with prestigious award from Together for Short Lives
Our Head of Psychosocial Services, Sarah Hodkinson and Director of Care, Lisa Dennis were thrilled to be awarded with the Dame Elizabeth Fradd Award at the 2025 Together for Short Lives conference this May.
The conference committee have created this new award in recognition of Dame Liz Fradd’s contribution to the children’s nursing and palliative care sector. All conference abstracts were reviewed by a panel of independent experts, who judged Lisa and Sarah’s abstract to be the highest scoring of all, leading to them being awarded the first ever Dame Liz Fradd Award for innovative research and excellence in the field of children’s palliative care.
An abstract is a summary of a presentation about expert work, research, findings and cutting-edge ideas summarised in an easily digestible format. It allows delegates to learn about best-practice and improvements being achieved within the world of children’s palliative care.
Together for Short Lives are a national charity that supports the 54 children’s hospices throughout the UK. The theme of their conference this year was ‘Built to last: Towards a strong, sustainable future’. Shooting Star’s award-winning abstract focuses on the safe delivery of care within our newly extended Bereavement Service, where an additional 170 families have been able to receive specialist bereavement care, including those who experience the sudden and unexpected death of their child.
Lisa and Sarah presented our learnings and achievements since the launch of this extension in 2023. Shooting Star are the first children’s hospice to introduce routine mental health screening with validated assessment tools. Our Family Support Workers support families to complete these tools, meaning we can provide the highest quality clinical care and safeguard those, who in the pain of their grief, may be experiencing suicidal thoughts. We congratulate our Family Support Workers on the implementation and impact of this work, alongside our Therapists, Counsellors and Social Workers.
Winning such a prestigious award, against such stiff competition and large-scale research projects demonstrates what we have achieved as a hospice and shows others how vital it is to reach every family that needs us.
Lisa Dennis, Director of Care shared, “I am beyond proud of the work of our teams, and the exceptional care that we provide. Led by our Family Support Workers, 542 screening tools have been completed, and collectively they show the depth and breadth of grief in parents and siblings we support, and the impact of our care on their mental health. Winning this award has huge significance for us, and in showing how children’s hospices can lead care for the future.”
Sarah Hodkinson, Head of Psychosocial Services said, “No family should be left to suffer the catastrophic death of their child alone. The incredible work of our team has shown that hospices have the specialist expertise needed to change the mental health outcomes for families. Today their outstanding work has been recognised.”
This award-winning abstract and its presentation at the conference has led other children’s hospices to ask for our help understanding how they can use screening with their families. On 30 September this year, Shooting Star Children’s Hospices will be holding a National Summit in London to share how we have achieved success with our Specialist Bereavement Service.
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