Shooting Star Children’s Hospices wins two prestigious awards

Shooting Star Children’s Hospices is proud to share that we have won not one, but two prestigious awards at the 2024 Care Awards by Business Awards UK.

Our Family Support team won Best Family Liaison Team, while Shooting Star Children’s Hospices was honoured with the title of Best Palliative Care Provider.

These annual awards celebrate excellence in the care sector, recognising organisations and individuals who go above and beyond to make a positive impact on the lives of those they serve. The 2024 Care Awards shine a light on the unwavering dedication, innovation, and significant contributions of trailblazers in the health and social care sector.

These awards recognise the high-quality wrap-around care we provide to support families who have a baby, child or young person with a life-limiting condition, or who have been bereaved, across Surrey, south-west London and north-west London.  

Whether lives are measured in days, weeks, months, or years, we are here to make every moment count.  

“At Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, every member of the team plays a vital role in delivering care and support for children, young people and their families,” Paul Farthing, Chief Executive of Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, said.

“These awards are a tribute to their hard work, professionalism and commitment, and everyone should feel hugely proud of the difference they make every day to the lives of those who use our services.”

Our Family Support team ensures each family receives a truly individualised pathway of care. The team consists of family support workers, arts therapists, trauma therapists, complementary therapists, counsellors, social workers, transition co-ordinators, and an events team. They bring their expertise together to plan co-ordinated programmes of psychosocial care that help families in crisis, at end-of-life or when their child dies. Currently around 15-20 families seek help each week and carefully individualised, creative and flexible programmes of care are delivered at the hospices, in family homes and in hospitals, allowing the support to be given where and when families need it. This workforce stays with the family from the point of referral through the three years and three months after a child dies, providing a much-needed safety net of emotional and practical support.

We recently expanded our specialist bereavement service to reach families who experience the sudden, unexpected, and often unimaginably tragic death of their child. Since November, 60 families have been referred to our Family Support team and are receiving our bespoke support. These are families who would otherwise not have access to bereavement care.

“Shooting Star Children’s Hospices is really proud of our excellent Family Support team,” Paul Farthing, Chief Executive of Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, said.

“We hear every day from families about the impact the team has on the lives of life-limited children and their loved ones. The team is a core part of our promise to be there for every family that loses a child in our area, and to provide amazing support to families with a life-limited child and the life-limited young people transitioning to become adults.”

Lisa Dennis, Director of Care at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, said, “The Best Family Liaison Team award recognises the excellence of our organisation and the individuals who provide direct care to those who need us at the worst time in their lives. We go above and beyond to ensure our families are supported in a way that is meaningful. As Director of Care, I see the positive impact of our work daily and feel enormously proud of our workforce and organisation.”

Sarah Hodkinson, Head of Psychosocial Services at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, said, “This award is a wonderful way to celebrate the extraordinary work of this team. This is a proud moment they so deserve. Every day the team strive to make things feel just a little easier for families, with the utmost care and great skill. When the team learned that families were missing out on receiving any care and support in their grief, they leapt into new and unknown areas of work to make sure families are not left on their own.  It takes a special kind of person to be there for families in the worst moments in their life. It takes a special kind of team to have achieved what they have this year.”

Our care is only possible thanks to our supporters. By donating, you are helping us to provide vital wrap-around support to families with a life-limited baby, child or young person, or whose child has died, across Surrey, south-west London and north-west London. To find out more on how you can help to make every moment count, visit our donation page here.