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
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. Anyone can make a referral to Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service and if you think your child may be eligible for our services, please do get in touch.
Alexander Devine on Facebook
It’s been a making music and playing with friends kind of day!
#lifeatourhospice #musictherapy #sensoryplay #play
26 incredible volunteers 💪
460 🎄 trees collected
...and over £8,500 raised! 🙌
A MASSIVE thank you to everyone that generously supported our Christmas Tree Recycling service this year. In particular, our amazing team of volunteers who braved the wet and cold weather to collect trees from people's homes and take them to be recycled.
All the trees were taken to Berkshire College of Agriculture for recycling into chippings and are already being used with their zoo animals on site.
As well as being good for the environment, we also love that our recycling service enables us to support other local charities. As part of our service, which is run in partnership with JustHelping, we are able to nominate a local charity to receive 10% of our donations. We are delighted to choose 18th Maidenhead Scouts, who are always incredibly supportive of our charity.
What a wonderful way to kick-start 2022! 💙💛
#volunteering #VolunteeringHeroes #communitysupport #localcharity #makeadifference
We're embracing the blue this #BlueMonday with a look back at some of our favourite photos from last year’s #RockTheBlue campaign during children’s hospice week.
From dress up days and danceathons, to blue bake sales, raffles and even a blue treasure hunt, we had such a blast in 2021 and we could not have done it without all our amazing local businesses, schools and supporters.
Fancy rocking the blue with us this year? 💙
Join in the BLUEming brilliant fun this children’s hospice week (20th to 26th June 2022) with your most imaginative blue-themed challenge!
Find out more ⬇️ ️www.alexanderdevine.org/rocktheblue
#BlueMonday #FundraisingFun
Copyright © 2019 Alexander Devine Children's Hospice Service. UK Registered Charity No. 1118947.