Dame Rebecca Harris, Castle Point MP, recently visited the Little Havens Hospice in Benfleet to see first hand the support they give to young families in the most difficult circumstances.
Little Havens is the only children’s hospice in Essex and is currently caring for more than 300 families in the county and the surrounding boroughs, which has required a 20% increase year-on-year in the number of hours of care delivered in the hospice. They offer care and support for babies, children and young people who are living with complex or incurable conditions.
Their services include ‘Day Stay’ sessions for respite care, free accommodation for family members, emergency stays when something unexpected happens, specialist care for young people approaching the end of their life and bereavement counselling. They also have landscaped gardens with sensory areas, wheelchair-accessible swings, adaptable play equipment, a multi-sensory room, a ball pool and messy play areas.
It now costs more than £4.3 million each year to provide care and support through Little Havens in the hospice and community team and the organisation must raise over £200,000 per week to make sure they can be there for the families that need them in their hardest times.
Dame Rebecca is co-sponsoring the Gambling Act 2005 (Monetary Limits for Lotteries) Bill in Parliament seeking to remove outdated caps on charity lottery fundraising. Under the current legislation, each charity lottery is capped at selling £50 million worth of tickets each year - a huge limit on their ability to maximise funds for good causes. These sales caps simply restrict the amount and flexibility of charitable funds such lotteries generate for good causes across the country, affecting organisations such as Little Havens which does such important work.
Following her visit, Dame Rebecca said: “I am proud to represent Little Havens, the only children’s hospice in Essex, which hundreds of babies, children and young people across the county rely on during the most challenging moments. During my visit, I saw first-hand the incredible personalised care that is given to these families when faced with the unimaginable news that there is no cure for their child’s illness.
I am also supporting calls for a more sustainable funding model for children’s hospices so they can continue caring for seriously ill children, providing the support that so many families depend on.”
For further information visit their website here: www.havenshospices.org.uk/childrens-and-young-peoples-care/ and referrals can be made by telephone on 01702 220350, 24 hours a day.
