About Us

Our vision is that:

Every baby, child and young adult who is seriously or terminally ill, receives the very best care and support, together with their family, wherever and whenever they need it.

Claire House Children’s Hospice helps seriously and terminally ill children live life to the full by creating wonderful experiences and bringing back a sense of normality to family life.

By providing specialist nursing and end of life care, as well as emotional support, Claire House helps families through some of the toughest times of their lives.

Claire House has a team of trained professionals who are as passionate about what they do as they are talented at doing it. Our staff includes nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, play specialists, and counsellors.

The care and support we provide

• Planned care (respite stays at the hospice or home, day care and groups for different ages)
• Unplanned or emergency care (which includes end-oflife care, symptom management and breaks provided at times of crisis because of a healthcare or social emergency)
• 24/7 Rapid Response team who provide highly specialist nursing and end-of-life care, be it at home, hospital or in the hospice. This team is supported by our Palliative Care Consultant who works jointly with Claire House and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
• Perinatal support, working closely with Liverpool Women’s Hospital and other neonatal units across Cheshire and Merseyside for families before and after birth when it is recognised that a baby may not survive for long
• Clinical therapies such as physiotherapy and aquatic therapy
• Young adult end of life and transition support, working closely with adult palliative care and teenage and young adult oncology partners
• Psychology, counselling and bereavement support for the family
• Sibling support
• Complementary, play and music therapies
• Butterfly Suites and bereavement support.

Creating magical memories

But Claire House is about far more than just care. It offers places for children to relax and enjoy themselves, whatever their age. At our site on the Wirral, they can have fun in our multi-sensory room, art room, hydrotherapy pool and jacuzzi. There is a separate wing complete with a sound system and Xbox for teenagers and young adults.

Whilst their children are having fun, mums and dads get the chance to enjoy some much-needed time off together or the opportunity to spend time with their other children.

Care when and where you need it

Not all families want to come to the hospice or our Liverpool site, so our team goes out to visit them in hospital or their homes and we put on regular trips for brothers and sisters to ensure they don’t miss out on having fun.

End of life care is a big part of what we do. We ensure a child’s final days are memorable and special, whether they are spent at home, hospital or in the hospice. We don’t just help with the practical issues of registering a child’s death and arranging their funeral – we provide dedicated round-the-clock support and specialist counselling.

As one family put it: “The best thing about Claire House is knowing that they are always there. From the minute you meet them for as long as you need them.”

Emotional support

Counselling and bereavement support is an important part of what we do, as well as providing social activities for siblings to allow them to build friendships with other children in similar situations.

Our fundraising promise

At Claire House Children’s Hospice we value the relationships we have with our supporters and strive for the best fundraising standards. To this end, we make these promises to our supporters:

• Focus – we are focused on why we are here: to raise money to support seriously and terminally ill children and their families in our community
• Passion – we are passionate about everything we do and totally committed to the cause
• Reliability – we make sure everything that is donated to us makes a difference
• Integrity – we fundraise honestly and transparently and inspire trust in our supporters
• Accountability – we will say thank you when we get it right and sorry when we get it wrong
• Excellence – we make sure supporters have an excellent experience so that the children can continue to have excellent care
• Respect – we will always take care of supporter data and will never share, swap or sell personal data with third parties for their benefit.

We stay up to date with developments in charity regulation, data protection and the new Fundraising Preference Service (FPS) to make sure we are legally compliant and adhering to all guidelines. In addition to this, we make sure all our fundraisers follow the Institute of Fundraising’s Code of Practice.

If you believe that Claire House is not sticking to these principles or are concerned about how your data is being used, then please email giving@clairehouse.org.uk