A LEADING county children’s charity has revealed the number of children and families being cared for has risen to the highest level in its history.
Acorns Children’s Hospice recently announced its Worcester-based hospice cared for 222 children and 283 families over the past year – the highest since it was founded 30 years ago.
The latest figures also revealed Acorns cared for 865 children and supported 1,088 families overall across its three West Midlands hospices.
It costs almost £10million for the charity to operate, with the majority of the costs coming from public fund-raising.
Emma Aspinall, director of care at Acorns, said: “The number of children we’re working with is now at the highest level ever. Being responsive to the needs of the children and their families is our priority, whilst providing quality care of the highest standard.
“We accepted an average of 16 new referrals a month over the last year. The need for the provision of specialist palliative care is greater than ever before and we believe it should be a basic right for every child and family in need.
“Acorns is unique, working across the whole of the West Midlands to bring together nurse-led clinical services within the hospice facilities and clinical and psychosocial care within the community.
“Our skilled and experienced multi-disciplinary teams deliver bespoke support and care to children and families, helping them cope with the medical, physical, emotional and financial challenges they face every day.
“As budget cuts really kick in elsewhere in the social care sector, we’re finding that we’re filling in gaps as families lean on us more than ever.”
Visit www.acorns.org.uk for more information.
