Compton Care were successfully awarded funding from Children In Need to fund a 3-year project starting December 2022. There is little support locally for children and young people and this funding allows Compton Care to further extend its support to the community. The main objectives for the project are to reduce social isolation for children and young people experiencing bereavement and to support the families of those children and young people in talking about death, dying and grief.

The support worker offers 1:1 support or group sessions at the hospice, off site and even in school if the young person wishes it – wherever they feel most comfortable, adding to our existing child and adult counselling services. The CYP support worker has devised and runs a calendar of events for the year such as a giant Easter Egg hunt in the extensive hospice grounds and meaningful opportunities to engage around key dates such as Father’s Day, Mother’s Day etc. Families are invited to be part of creative, fun and engaging wellbeing activities and local charities and organisations support with opportunities such as football training. We recognise the differing needs in ages and abilities, adapting as needed, however, often the older kids wish to be part of the ‘organising’ of events alongside the support worker, further empowering them and encouraging confidence building.

So far outcomes and feedback have been positive with around 32 children and young people affected by having loved ones needing palliative or end of life care supported by the service to date along with their families. As the project has progressed we have recruited two volunteers to support the running of events and we anticipate that the number of families we support will continue to increase which will provide further peer support for the children and young people.