Our care
Caring for the child and the whole familyWe understand that having a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition can impact on everything you do. That’s why we have an holistic approach that is bespoke for every child and their family in order to provide the best possible care and support that they need.
As well as the clinical care, we open up opportunities for children and their siblings to experience fun, joy and adventures, and help families make precious memories for as long as they have.
Our services
Getting support from us doesn’t have to mean a child’s death is imminent as our end of life care and bereavement support is just a part of what we do.
Our service areas include:
Respite care
Specialist play
Symptom management
Family support
End of life care
Bereavement support
Alexander’s Care Team
Alexander’s Care Team is skilled in looking after children with complex healthcare needs.
Our team of dedicated professionals include qualified nurses, clinical nurse specialists, carers, play specialists, a music therapist, counsellors and doctors.
We work in close partnership with the NHS, local authorities and other professionals to ensure a joined-up approach and deliver care that is needed for each child and their family.
In the community
A significant amount of our hospice service is carried out in the community. This might be in the family home, in hospital or in schools. Wherever the child and family needs us.
For these families our visits provide much needed respite and we can bring support and services to their home.
We understand that good quality respite care is absolutely essential for the health and wellbeing of families caring for children with complex healthcare needs. Therefore we want to give families regular opportunities to take precious time for themselves and have the peace of mind that the clinical needs of their child are being met.
Our children’s hospice
Our purpose-built children’s hospice, located just off the M4 near Maidenhead, was opened in 2018.
It was designed to complement the existing community service with state-of-the-art-facilities for all the family to enjoy, including: a hydrotherapy pool, sensory room, music room, games room, outdoor playground and sensory garden, six children’s bedrooms, two self-contained family flats and a bereavement suite with its own garden.
Sensory room
A fully-equipped sensory room which is a wonderful safe space to engage children of all ages and abilities in stimulating play.
Creative learning zone
The messiest room in the house and where masterpieces are created that are completely priceless to families. It is also a place for children to maximise their learning capacity.
Music room
A dedicated room with an array of musical instruments for children to express themselves and stimulate their senses.
Hydrotherapy pool
A space for the children to splash around, relax and spend precious time together with their family. For a child confined to a wheelchair, the freedom of movement in water is a priceless gift.
Outdoor adventures at the hospice
Outside, our woodland-themed sensory garden offers an interactive and safe environment with wheelchair-friendly winding pathways, a mud kitchen, musical play pieces, scented plants and raised flower beds. Nestled amongst the plants and flowers are a host of LEGO models built by the talented team of LEGOLAND Model Makers.
In 2020, we also opened our exciting adventure playground that has been designed with special equipment to enable the children of all abilities we care for and their siblings to play together.
Take a look around
Let Aaron and Habibah, two of the young people that we support, take you on a tour of our hospice.
View photos of our hospice. Please click on on the thumbnails below to enlarge.
Who we support
We are here to help children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions from birth until they are 19 years old. We support families from all faiths, cultures and ethnic groups.
We cover the whole of Berkshire and many of the surrounding counties and our support is provided free of charge and available all year round.
Need our help?
The word hospice should not seem scary and getting support from us doesn’t have to mean a child’s death is imminent. Helping to enrich the lives of the children and their families is at the heart of our service, our end of life and bereavement support is just a part of what we do.
Our children’s hospice service covers the whole of Berkshire and into surrounding counties. If you think your child may be eligible for our services, please do get in touch.
Alexander Devine on Facebook
Playtime just got more magical at our hospice!✨
Thank you so much to Lifelites for their latest donation of assistive and inclusive technology to help enrich the lives of the children and young people that we support.
Today Lifelites has been training members of Alexander’s Care Team on how to use all the new equipment and toys including Eyegaze which helps children with limited movement or restricted speech communicate and take control for themselves, using just the movement of their eyes. With most of the equipment easily portable, it means there are no limits to where and when we can play!
It was wonderful to be joined by some of our families to celebrate the donation of this new technology and, of course, have a play!
#lifeatourhospice #childrenshospicecare #magicalmoments #assistivetechnology
We are so grateful to the National Lottery Awards for helping to fund the important development of our Family Support programme.
The increased need to develop our Family Support programme has been driven by an increasing number of children with complex needs and a rising number of bereaved families. Thanks to National Lottery Awards’ generous donation of £9,250, we are able to widen the support we can give families including the recruitment of our Family Support Worker, parent group meetings and special events such as our remembrance days.
The National Lottery Community Fund
📣Please join us in giving our amazing London marathon runners a big cheer! 🙌
Tracey, James and Fraser - we are so proud of you and wish you the best of luck for today.
Go #TeamDevine!
#fundraisingheros #marathonchallenge #londonmarathon2022
Copyright © 2019 Alexander Devine Children's Hospice Service. UK Registered Charity No. 1118947.