News

Our Housekeeping Team, aka the Pink Ladies, are the unsung heroes of the hospice, ensuring that all of our areas are constantly spotless and sparkling! 

On Housekeeping Appreciation Week, we’d like to thank them for their hard work – without them, viruses would spread and our facilities wouldn’t be safe for the children and young people in our care 

To Nic, Mags, Lynn, Alison, Pam, and Alison – we appreciate you so much! 

Hello,

Just to make you all aware that on the 12/09/24 there is young person coming for respite with a severe peanut allergy. Please do not bring nut products into the hospice.

Thank you.

Good morning everyone,

A huge congratulations are in order for our Catering Team, who are the proud recipients of a 5* food hygiene rating after the health inspector visited us yesterday!

Well done to Jeff, Kath, Andrea and Nic – alongside their dedicated team of volunteers – for not only feeding us excellent food, but for keeping Derian House safe, clean and tidy in the process.

Our shiny new sticker is being proudly displayed on the front door leading into reception J

Hi everyone,

Over recent weeks there have been a number of occasions when I have noticed that computers have been left with their screens on and in a state of live use, i.e. the screen not locked out with information visible on screen.  Where I have seen this, I have closed the lid on computers and/or locked the screen immediately.

Can I remind you that leaving information on screen and unattended is a potential breach of General Data Protection Regulation principles and guidelines, and could lead to sensitive information being accessible to anyone.

As Data Protection Officer, I will now be formally monitoring this situation to ensure screens are not left unlocked and unattended.  Staff will therefore be challenged to ensure we all follow information governance policies and procedures.

It is the responsibility of us all to protect the information we hold.

Many thanks,

Anthony.

A Paediatric Nurse who specialises in making sure children and their families receive the best care at the end of their lives has been awarded the prestigious title of Queen’s Nurse.

Sue Ward walked through the doors of Derian House Children’s Hospice 13 years ago as a Registered Nurse – and since completing her Masters Degree in 2020, is one of the first Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPS) to operate within a hospice environment.

The Queen’s Nurse is a prestigious and historic title which is given to nurses who are delivering and leading outstanding care and is awarded by the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI).

The title is open to registered nurses with more than five years’ experience working in the community. Managers and patients provide feedback about applicants, which is assessed along with their application.

“Becoming a nurse has always been my dream since being a young child,” said Sue.

“The day I qualified as a Paediatric Nurse, 14 years ago, was one of the proudest moments of my life. And now, I am so very proud of my role as one of the first Advanced Clinical Practitioners within a hospice environment. Seeing the difference my role makes to Derian House families is a huge achievement.

“As a nurse, I am constantly striving to achieve high standards of practice and delivering excellent patient-centred care to all our families – making sure all care is tailored to the child and their family’s needs.

“I am proud to be an ambassador for nursing, whether it has been working in an acute environment on the ward, caring for sick children, or supporting children and their families when they receive a palliative diagnosis.

“I am very aware there are few nursing professionals with skills and experience required to provide children’s palliative care in the community. My personal vision is that every baby, child, young person, and their families, should receive the best palliative nursing care by a knowledgeable and skilled nurse, within their preferred place of care.

“To have received the Queen’s Nurse title means the absolute world and is the most amazing achievement of my nursing career. The award will allow me to continue my commitment to improving paediatric palliative care across the region.”

Catherine Randall, Chief Nurse at Derian House Children’s Hospice, said: “Congratulations to our incredible colleague, Suzanne, who has been awarded the prestigious Queen’s Nurse title – it is a great honour.

“Your dedication, compassion and commitment to excellence in nursing inspires us all. We are so proud of you.”

Hello Team Derian, I hope that you are all well.

It’s been a while since I sent a staff update email, so I thought I’d share some brief information with you all:

1. Cost of Living Increase: You will recall the Trustees approved a cost of living increase in April of 3%.  Since then we have been following the public sector pay award decisions, and can now confirm that following a request to the Trustees we will be increasing that 3% award to 5.5%, matching the NHS pay award for this year.  This is great news, however not everyone will be eligible, you’ll need to have been in employment at Derian on the 1^st April this year at the time the cost of living increase was awarded.  The additional 2.5% will be backdated to the 1^st April and you will receive this in your August salary.  You will also recall that we became a Real Living Wage employer in April also, and many staff had an uplift in hourly rate to match the RLW rate.  Some of this uplift was greater than the cost of living increase, and therefore these employees will not receive a further increase.  If your RLW uplift is less than the 5.5% then you will receive some uplift to match the 5.5%.  Apologies if this sounds confusing – please check with HR for any queries you may have.

2. Recruitment: We have been extremely busy with recruitment across both the care and non-care  areas of the charity.  New roles appointed to include a Perinatal Nurse (Vicky), Midwife (Maria), Community Team Leader (Victoria) and our new Head of Integrated Care, who I am delighted to say is our very own Rosie Thomas.  We have also appointed  new Finance Director (Tracy) who will join in September.  We are still very actively recruiting Nurses to continue to build the team.  Other roles across the charity will be advertised also.

3. All Staff Away Day: Given the amount of new staff joining Team Derian we have decided to postpone the away day until the majority of posts are recruited to and new staff have joined us, we thought this made sense.  A new date will come out soon.

4. CQC Awareness: Anthony and Catherine have carried out a workshop for Trustee and the GPs to remind them of their responsibilities within the CQC framework, this was very well received and we plan to provide them with more knowledge around CQC compliance.

5. Visits: We’re now putting Derian back on the map in terms of our external positioning and reputation building, and so you’ll see many visitors over the coming weeks and months as we re-build our profile.  Many of the Chief Nurses across the health system will be visiting along with many other colleagues as we build partnerships and collaborations.  Catherine is leading this piece of work.

6. Income Generation: We are developing an Income Generation strategy across four key areas of our financial modelling, as we aim to raise more funds over the coming years to help support the growth in our hospice services.  We’re focussing particularly on our fundraising plan, and Emma our new Fundraising Manager will be key in developing this, also our Retail growth plan, and two new areas of fundraising for Derian, Major Donor fundraising and developing our strategy for Legacies.  We’ll share more about all of this over the coming months.

That’s about it for now

Rather than a weekly email which can be difficult to commit to and often there isn’t much to share, going forward I’ll email fortnightly if there is anything to update staff with.

Have a great day/week everyone…

Hello All

The Amazon account has been changed to a ‘business Amazon account’ – going forward all orders will be processed via the Admin team, please continue with your usual process of having the PO signed off and pass to Paula or Kirsty to order – please send a link for the items to be ordered by clicking on the following symbol and email it to admin@derianhouse.co.uk

Please note we will trial this way of ordering and review it in time to see how well it works – items will only be ordered if we have the approved purchase order – thanks all, any queries please ask Kirsty Yates.

Looks like PaperCut have changed the way scanning works on the printers.

Process is now…

1. Scan your card OR log in to the scanner
2. Push “Scan”
3. The scanner should automatically fill in your email address, subject and file name.
4. Push settings to change 2 sided, paper size etc. if you wish.
5. Push “Start”
6. The scanner will automatically start scanning and show “1” under Number of Originals.
7. Push “Finish” and then “Start”
8. Push “Send”

Seems to be a few more steps than necessary, but at least it’s clearer to read than the previous method!

We took home gold at this year’s Chorley Flower Show after our garden wowed the judges this weekend (26, 27, and 28 July).

The vibrant display, created by our Derian House team and its army of volunteers, told the story of Build-A-Forest – our campaign to rebuild our woodland areas after we had to have more than 150 trees cut down in its gardens due to ash dieback disease.

Named “giving nature a helping hand”, the garden featured saplings donated by the Woodland Trust, a selection of alpine plants, a handmade pond, and recycled materials made from the trees that were cut down in the hospice gardens – including a sculpted wooden hand made by Ken in Estates.

Derian House’s Build-A-Forest campaign is still ongoing, and thanks to our generous supporters, hospice volunteers have been able to plant 250 new trees in the gardens.

Cameron Murray, Communications and Marketing Manager at Derian House, said: “It was fantastic to see so many people come together to see Derian House’s entry at the one of the most popular horticultural shows in Lancashire.

“It was a real Derian team effort – thank you to everyone, from staff to our wonderful volunteers, who helped make our garden look as fantastic as it did.

“And thank you to everyone who has supported our Build-A-Forest campaign so far. With your help, we have been able to begin to replenish our woodland areas so that our families can enjoy them now and years into the future.”

Councillor Peter Wilson, Deputy Leader of Chorley Council, said: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed chatting to everyone at Chorley Flower Show. The community gardens in particular are spectacular this year. I would like to thank everyone who contributed and it’s really important that we maintain our partnerships with charities like Derian House who do such great work.”

Chorley Flower Show is a three-day flower-filled family event set in Astley Park where visitors can see award-winning gardens plus speak with gardening experts.

MONDAY 8^th

• What film will we choose to watch in the cinema this afternoon?

TUESDAY 9^th

• Derian Playgroup will be held in the Seaside Room this morning, where our babies and toddlers will be enjoying a morning of music, messy play and fun from 10:00am – 11:30am.

• Eyes down looking, it’s Prize Bingo time! Join us for one of our favourite activities in the Messy PlayZone this morning.

• After lunch, we’ll be joining Caroline (Wellbeing & Play Worker) for a session of Sensory Story Time in the House Lounge.

WEDNESDAY 10^th

• We’ll be welcoming a team from Baxi into the hospice gardens today for a corporate volunteering day.

• Music teacher Rachel will be in the Snug for an hour of singalong fun from 11:00am.

• Let’s make summertime sun catchers in the Messy PlayZone this morning… we may even do it outside in the Sensory Garden if the weather is kind to us.

• Our children and young people will be enjoying fun and splashes in the hydrotherapy pool this afternoon.

• Derian Dads will meet for their monthly session in the Seaside Room from 7:00pm – 9:30pm this evening.

THURSDAY 11^th

• It’s competition time! Who’ll come out on top as we play Boccia and Kurling in the Messy PlayZone this morning?

• Shuna and her human Linda will be visiting us for Pet Therapy fun.

• Individual and group sessions of music therapy with Martha will take place in the Snug from 2:00pm.

• We’ll be in Danni’s Diner this afternoon, baking some yummy treats to take home.

FRIDAY 12^th

• Join us in the Messy PlayZone for themed activities this morning.
• The hospice will be closed for in-house respite tonight, tomorrow (13^th) and Sunday (14^th). Please be aware that the hospice will not be open until 7:30am on these days.

SATURDAY 13^th/SUNDAY 14^th

• Please see above.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

• If you would like to share with the rest of Derian what your department is up to in the next 7 days, please send an email to murray@derianhouse.co.ukbefore Friday the week before.

Have a great week everyone! J

Hi all,

Hope you are all well. Just a quick email to remind you about our BRAND NEW event we have planned for this September, right here at the Hospice!

On Friday 20^th September from 5pm, we will be hosting a never been done before in Derian history, triple whammy event called “Walk This Way for Derian House”.

Walk This Way consists of three mind strengthening, exhilarating walks across fire, shattered glass and those pesky Lego bricks that we all dread!

The event itself will be held right here at Derian, well, over on the pony field across the way, and it could see over 300 people attending on the night. This event is suitable for all ages, families, corporates, communities, the lot!

I wanted to give Team Derian a heads up, so that some of you who may be interested can bag those places! All we ask is the you raise a minimum of £50 per person, per walk.

If you are interested in the event or would like to register/sign up, please follow the link below J

https://www.derianhouse.co.uk/events/walk-this-way-for-derian-house/

It would be great to see some DH staff at the event taking part, and also volunteering to help out on the night too (more details to follow).

If anyone has any questions please do come up and see me or pop me an email.

Looking forward to walking with you all! 🔥

Good morning, it has come to light that fleet vehicles have and are being parked within the Family and Disabled parking bays, could I just remind everyone that these bays are there for the benefit of the intended user only and should not be used for fleet vehicles at any time.

In addition to the reserved bays we are currently in the process of obtaining signage for the new Bus which is to be sited to the right-hand side of reception next to the family parking bay.

This bay is to be dedicated for the bus only at any time so please bear this in mind when parking.

Kind regards,

Richard Duckett
Facilities Coordinator

In June, we got stuck in and celebrated Children’s Hospice Week, Volunteers Week, AND Pride Month in true Derian style, we enjoyed plenty of fun outside thanks to the sun finally making an appearance, and the Derian Dynamos did us proud once again by winning the regional kurling finals! #MonthInAMinute 💚

MONDAY 1^st

• Bonjour, hi! To celebrate Canada Day, we’ll be doing themed arts and crafts in the Messy PlayZone this morning.

• What film will we choose to watch in the cinema this afternoon?

TUESDAY 2^nd

• Derian Playgroup will be held in the Seaside Room this morning, where our babies and toddlers will be enjoying a morning of music, messy play and fun from 10:00am – 11:30am.

• Wimbledon is kicking off, so naturally we’ll be doing tennis themed activities this morning in the Messy PlayZone.

• Join us in Smile Park this afternoon for tennis and outdoor games – weather depending!

WEDNESDAY 3^rd

• Our children and young people will be enjoying sensory tenpin bowling fun in the Messy PlayZone this morning.

• Music teacher Rachel will be in the Snug for an hour of singalong fun from 11:00am.

• We’ll be making a splash in the hydrotherapy pool this afternoon.

THURSDAY 4^th

• To celebrate American Independence Day, we’ll be doing themed arts and crafts in the Messy PlayZone this morning, followed by Hollywood Walk of Fame hand and footprint fun after lunch.

• Individual and group sessions of music therapy with Martha will take place in the Snug from 2:00pm.

• The Sibling Social (for our 16+ siblings) will meet here at the hospice this evening for a relaxation session with Denise.

FRIDAY 5^th/SATURDAY 6^th/SUNDAY 7^th

• The hospice will be closed for in-house respite tonight, tomorrow (6^th) and Sunday (7^th). Please be aware that the hospice will not be open until 7:30am on these days.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

• Walk This Way! On Friday 20^th September, gather your friends and family for our latest fundraising event, which will see our supporters walk 10ft across fire, shattered glass, and/or Lego bricks. All we ask is a minimum fundraising target of just £50 per person, per walk. Get involved by emailing salmon@derianhouse.co.uk.

• If you would like to share with the rest of Derian what your department is up to in the next 7 days, please send an email to cameron.murray@derianhouse.co.uk before Friday the week before.

Have a great week everyone! J

Hello,

The new vehicle NV24 UWU (black Renault Traffic) is now available to book, the process is exactly the same as the other fleet vehicles and can be booked by all departments.  If you want to familiarise yourself with it or want to know how to use the ramp etc then please see Richard.

Please note there is currently no fuel genie card, this has been ordered so until it arrives you will need to get petty cash from Finance.

Happy Driving! J

Good morning, this is particularly short notice but tomorrow the 27^th we will have an engineer with us to perform the annual Pat Testing.

As per usual this service will require us to make available all electrical equipment the only items that will not be tested is medical.

If you have any questions please contact Facilities.

MONDAY 24^th

• It’s film time – what will we watch in Derian at the Movies today?

TUESDAY 25^th

• Derian Playgroup will be held in the Seaside Room this morning, where our babies and toddlers will be enjoying a morning of music, messy play and fun from 10:00am – 11:30am.

• VR Pixel will be here at the hospice to capture new drone footage and stills of our gardens – particularly the recent updates to the Sensory and Reflection Gardens – for the updated virtual tour on our website.

• The Quality, Safety and Improvement Sub-Committee meeting will take place in the Conference Room between 10:00am – 12:00pm.

• From 12:00pm until 1:00pm, the CQC Preparation Meeting will be held in Vinten Meeting Room to ensure we are CQC ready.

WEDNESDAY 26^th

• Our children and young people will be enjoying water and sand play fun in the Messy PlayZone this morning.

• Music teacher Rachel will be in the Snug for an hour of singalong fun from 11:00am.

• There’ll be lots of fun being had in the hydrotherapy pool this afternoon.

• A group of corporate volunteers from Capita will be in our gardens doing some general maintenance work today.

THURSDAY 27^th

• Join us in the Messy PlayZone for ten pin bowling fun this morning – who will win?

• Our resident pet therapy pooch Shuna will be here in the hospice with her human Linda for pet therapy.

• A Sensory Story Time session will take place in the House Lounge this afternoon.

• John (Family Counsellor) will be running a guided meditation session available to all staff in the Cinema from 4:00pm today.

FRIDAY 28^th  

• Get creative with summertime arty fun in the Messy PlayZone this morning.

• Our children and young people will be in the Sensory Room for a therapeutic TACPAC session this afternoon.

SATURDAY 29^th/SUNDAY 30^th

• The hospice will be closed for overnight respite this weekend. There will be no access to the building until 7:30am on these days.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

• If you would like to share with the rest of Derian what your department is up to in the next 7 days, please send an email to cameron.murray@derianhouse.co.uk before Friday the week before.

Have a great week everyone! J

Good morning all,

A new function has been added to the Vantage reporting system to specify the area a BCYP or family is from if they are involved, affected or witness to an incident. Please see below;

1. Complete initial details such as incident date/time/type as normal
2. You will then reach a blue ‘People Involved’ banner – please select ‘+ Add’ on the left hand side
3. When you ‘Patient’ as person type, a field named ‘Area Patient is From’ will appear – select the relevant area from the drop down list
4. Continue with the form as normal

Completing this field will allow us to more accurately report to our funders on the demographic data for each area. Thank you for your support with this.

If you have any problems, please let me know.

A dedicated children’s nurse is taking on a mammoth cycle to celebrate Children’s Hospice Week 2024.

Francesca Lennon, from Buckinghamshire, will cycle 54 miles each day – representing the 54 children’s hospices in the UK.

She will visit seven hospices over seven days and will complete her epic challenge at Derian House Children’s Hospice on Sunday.

The challenge will raise money for Together for Short Lives, the charity that looks after all of the country’s children’s hospices, and will be split between each hospice.

Francesca worked as a children’s nurse in the NHS and children’s hospices before setting up CHAT UK – a project to raise awareness and funds for all children’s hospices across the country.

She will set off from Derian House at 9am on Sunday, 23 June, returning that afternoon to be cheered on by supporters, hospice staff and families.

The fundraiser is taking place during Children’s Hospice Week (17-23 June 2024), the UK’s annual awareness week for children’s hospices and palliative care services, run by Together for Short Lives.

This is the second time Francesca’s challenge has come to Derian House. In 2022, she took on a mammoth 3200-mile cycle during Children’s Hospice Week in 2022, visiting every children’s hospice in the UK and raising over £80,000 for Together for Short Lives.

Francesca, from Chenies in Buckinghamshire said: “I know first-hand that caring for a child with serious health needs 24/7 is emotionally and physically exhausting. Every day in my job, I get to meet the most incredible children and families, and I see just how life-changing support from children’s hospices are for them. They will push me on to cross the finishing line once again.”

Caroline Taylor, Director of Income and Engagement at Derian House, said: “Children’s Hospice Week is a wonderful opportunity to shine a light on the work we do at Derian House. The cycling challenge will be a definite highlight of the week. Francesca’s story is one that has touched us all and we cannot wait to celebrate her arrival in Chorley.”

Alongside Derian House Children’s Hospice, Francesca is also cycling to and from Demelza, Acorns Children’s Hospice, Children’s Hospice South West’s Charlton Farm, Tŷ Hafan, Rainbows, Martin House, and Helen and Douglas House.

Nick Carroll, Director of Fundraising at Together for Short Lives added: “Francesca is, quite simply, one of the most inspiring people we know. Not only is she there for seriously ill children and families in her job, but she is also going the extra mile for them in this incredible challenge. It is a privilege to have her support, and we will be cheering the whole team on as they also help raise important awareness of the role children’s hospices play and why they urgently need more support from whichever party forms the next government.”

To support Francesca and raise money for hospices like Derian House, visit https://www.justgiving.com/chatuk.

MONDAY 10^th

• Say hello to our new starter Ionie Calderbank, who joins us today in the exciting new role of Child & Family Advocate & Engagement Worker.

• The hospice will be closed for planned overnight respite until Thursday 13^th June, when it will resume as normal. Please note that the hospice won’t be unlocked until 7:30am on these days.

TUESDAY 11^th

• Derian Playgroup will be held in the Seaside Room this morning, where our babies and toddlers will be enjoying a morning of music, messy play and fun from 10:00am – 11:30am.

• Our Lodgers will be celebrating Pride Month with an abundance of activities at today’s Day Care session, with bingo, rock painting, and rainbow baking on the agenda!

THURSDAY 13^th 

• We’ll be continuing our Pride Month celebrations with arts and crafts in the Messy PlayZone throughout the day. Join us as we create our very own jewellery and rainbow jars.

FRIDAY 14^th

• It’s the inaugural Derian House PRIDE today, so we’re celebrating with a colourful dress-up day. If you’re working directly with our CYP, please adhere to IPC policies when choosing your rainbow outfit.

• We’ll be in Danni’s Diner cooking up some tasty rainbow pizzas this afternoon.

• Siblings group Chill Out & Chat will be meeting in the Seaside Room this evening for their monthly session.

SATURDAY 15^th

• Happy Birthday King Charles – we’ll be celebrating the occasion with arty fun in the Messy PlayZone.

• Our children and young people will be enjoying fun and splashes in the hydrotherapy pool this afternoon.

• Danni’s Club – for our younger siblings – will meet in the Seaside Room this afternoon.

SUNDAY 16^th  

• Happy Father’s Day to all of our Derian Dads – we’ll be busy making cards and gifts in the Messy PlayZone this morning.

• What will we find on our Scavenger Hunt in the hospice grounds? Join Caroline (Wellbeing & Play Worker) for an interactive sensory story this afternoon.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

• If you would like to share with the rest of Derian what your department is up to in the next 7 days, please send an email to cameron.murray@derianhouse.co.uk before Friday the week before.

Have a great week everyone! J

Hi everyone,

Next week, we’re celebrating Pride Month here at the hospice with activities in the House and Lodge throughout the week.

On Friday 14^th June, we’re having a Pride Dress-Up day, where staff and volunteers are encouraged to wear a colour of the rainbow. Please adhere to IPC policies when choosing your outfit.

Good Afternoon,

As you are all aware (or may not be), we have been closing to Planned Overnight Respite for specific nights for the last few weeks. This allows us to safely staff the nights where BCYPS are planned for admission.

On the nights where we are closed, we have no staff in the building and therefore, there will be no one in the building until 0730hrs in the morning. I have listed the dates we have planned closures as I am aware some of our staff arrive before 0730.

The dates where you will not have access to the building until 0730 are:

08.06.24-13.06.24

18.06.24-20.06.24

29.06.24-01.07.24

06.07.24-08.07.24

13.07.24-18.07.24

23.07.24-25.07.24

02.08.24-05.08.24

Please note, the hospice remains open for all other activities during the day.

If there are any changes to any of the above dates, you will be updated via email.

Any questions, please ask.

Thank you for your support with this,

Did you know that every year communities across the UK celebrate the amazing contribution and dedication of volunteers in what is known as ‘Volunteers Week’?

So many of you work alongside our volunteers on a day to day basis, and I am sure you will all agree that they are simply superstars for their unwavering support of Derian House.

From that welcoming face on arrival at the hospice, enjoying a homemade cake from the tea trolley, watching our gardens bloom under the loving care of our gardening team, to the teams of people sorting through donations and ensuring our shops run smoothly, not forgetting all of our Trustees who continually support the growth of our services.

Every single role is important to us here at Derian.

We have 39 hospice volunteers, 66 supporting our retail and 27 event volunteers along with various corporate groups who volunteer for a day with us.

In 2023, they gave over 16,994 hours of their time; that’s equivalent to a staggering 708 days.

Some help weekly, others once or twice a year – it make no difference how much time they give, it’s their continuing support and passion for Derian House that I find amazing.

To say a little thank you we will be hosting an Afternoon Tea in the Seaside Room on Thursday, 6^th June,  from 1.30pm – 3.30pm, if you’re free, please pop in and say hello. We have a few fun things planned for the afternoon.

I hope you join me this week in saying a huge ‘THANK YOU’ to all of our wonderful volunteers.

To celebrate Volunteer’s Week (3-9 June), our longest running volunteer Val Sharp has been in the news after being honoured at the future King’s royal party.

Val has featured on BBC News online, the Lancashire Evening Post, and the Burnley Express after her visit to the Royal Garden Party, hosted by Prince William, at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, 21 May.

Val will also be live with Graham Liver on BBC Radio Lancashire tomorrow morning (Tuesday) – tune in from 7:40am.

You can read the stories below:

BBC News

Lancashire Evening Post

Burnley Express

Val was nominated by the Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire, Mrs Amanda Parker JP, to receive an invitation to the royal event after learning about her length of service during a visit to Derian House at the hospice 30th anniversary open day.

Hello Team Derian, please find a brief below an update from across the Hospice……

1. Our new Children & Family Advocate and Engagement Lead, Natalie, has settled into Team Derian. Thank you to those of you who have met up with Natalie and made her feel welcome. She is currently working her way round the teams, meeting as many people as possible to build up a picture of the services we offer and all of our touchpoints with families. She will be looking at everything we do to engage with our families – from referral to discharge – and will be helping us to ensure that their voices are being heard in everything we do. Natalie will be joined by Ionie, our Children & Family Advocate and Engagement worker in early June. These roles will be vital in ensuring that we put our families at the heart of all decisions, and that we can co-design services in the future.  Natalie and Ionie will play a key role in our next Strategic Needs Assessment which will help develop the services for the future.  These roles were directly requested by the board of trustees and set us apart from the rest of the hospice world. It is important that these roles are independent to service delivery and as such sit within our Engagement structure under Caroline. Welcome to the team.

2. We now have a new graphic designer in post. Welcome to Kathryn who started work last week. She is now available to receive your graphic design requests.

3. Have you seen our recent TV advert? Holly’s Story is now running on ITV Granada, encouraging people to leave a gift to us in their Wills. Thank you to Holly’s family for letting us tell the story of their special girl. If you haven’t seen, you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFJe7u-ywSE&feature=youtu.be

4. Bridget Thomas, our new Deputy Clinical Director has hit the ground running this week.  Bridget helped to deliver training during our standards re-set week, and has now started in earnest and is spending her first few weeks getting to know Team Derian and reviewing all of our policies and procedures to support our teams to deliver outstanding and safe care.

5. A small group of staff represented Derian House at a £1million celebration dinner held by Together for Cinema, the charity who donated our £100,000 cinema room back in 2019, and reported that the quality of our cinema room is one of the best of all children’s hospices across the UK.

6. It’s pay day (yay!) and you should all have your 3% increase back-dated from April. Thanks to the finance team for the extra work they’ve put in this month to ensure this has happened smoothly.

7. In terms of statutory funding, we are clear on the funding from L&SC for this financial year.  It is less than last year due to many matched funding pots no longer existing.  GM continues to be difficult to navigate however we will get there I am sure.

8. As many of you will know Ruth will be leaving the team over the summer and therefore we are now out to advertisement for her successor.

9. In addition to the roles mentioned above we’re busy on the recruitment front with the following colleagues having recently joined or arriving very soon !

• Ken Whalen – Facilities
• Heather Skinner – Care Team
• Alice Whaley –  Care Team
• Dorota Rebis-Witkowska – Care Team
• Nicola Grindley – Cook
• Vicki Boe – Temporary Finance Officer
• Samantha Oakes – Care Team
• Emma McClymont – Care Team

• Thank you to those of you who expressed an interest in supporting Kim with designing our new staff engagement survey.  There are 11 of team Derian involved and they’ll be getting together very soon to redesign the survey to be more bespoke to our needs.

• Managers embraced a half day training session this week on Employment Law.  The session was delivered by Employment Lawyer John Hassalls who provides legal advice on more complex HR matters.  Feedback on the session has been wholly positive, and we’ll be providing more development for managers around HR in the coming months.

Finally, thank you for your continued hard work and I hope that you have a well-earned break over the Bank Holiday (for those of you who are not on shift).

Take care everyone

We are the champions, my friend! 

Last month, three of our talented young people took part in Bolton Wanderers in the Community‘s Panathlon Challenge secondary curling competition at Bolton Arena… and they only went and won it! 

15 teams from eight schools took part, but it was the Derian Dynamos that came out on top… and they’ll now progress to the North West finals in June 

Not only have we been awarded a shiny trophy to add to our ever-growing collection, but each of our lads went home with a medal, which they were presented with at a homecoming here at the hospice during Friday Night Club

We’re so proud of the boys for their incredible efforts – well done 

In April, our children and young people celebrated Rainbow Day with an array of colourful activities, we threw open our doors during the Easter holidays for lots of family fun, and thousands of fans united at Bolton Arena for the biggest Stars & Cars event to date! #MonthInAMinute 💚

It will cost us £6m to run our services in 2024, with only 30p in every pound coming from government funding. Help us give our children more moments like these by donating now ✨

https://youtu.be/QvWKkpenAy8

Dear Team Derian,

As promised, I am writing to update you on discussions at our Trustee board meeting last week.

It was really pleasing that we had the opportunity to discuss a number of areas where we are performing exceptionally well.  We were delighted to note the financial position at the year end.  We are in a strong position and, for this year, and despite some challenges we are hopeful that we will retain a good level of statutory funding.  We were also pleased to note that we have seen significant improvements in our retail offer and performance.  Thanks to the efforts of the team we now feel in a position where we can start to further develop and build our retail offer. This is a significant shift from where we were twelve months ago.

We were also delighted to hear of the progress that is being made in strengthening our governance arrangements. This work will continue over the year and will be a continued focus for the board.

Our performance in marketing, retail and income generation remains strong and today I have been delighted to see our Derian advert on television for the first time.

One of the key decisions that the board took at its meeting this month was to approve the annual pay award of 3% which will be applied with immediate effect. We will of course keep our eye on the pay award given to the NHS and may decide to review our position in light of that announcement later in the year.

We were delighted to read a number of impact stories that were presented to us.  It is really important that we continue to understand the significant difference that the smallest thing can make to our children, young people and their families. The impact stories are a really good way of reminding us what we are here for and the board takes great pleasure in recognising the achievements of our teams.

So whilst there was lots for us to celebrate, we were also extremely concerned to hear of a number of incidents which may impact the safety of those in our care. We expect that our services are of the highest standard not only from a safety perspective but from an experience perspective. Our families deserve no less than the absolute best. They deserve safe, compassionate  care and in every contact should expect to experience our teams professional and ‘over and above’ response. Catherine shared with us the care improvement plan, which we were pleased to see but we need to see urgent progress made in this area. Care is our core business and we have to see urgent and significant improvement in this area. If we fail in providing outstanding care, all our other achievements are meaningless. It is for this reason that following the board meeting and a further issue on Sunday, I took the decision with the Karen our Chief Executive to suspend our in house overnight care services for a period in order that we can undertake a ‘reset’. I ask that all those in the care team, look to themselves and take personal responsibility for supporting us to be the best we can be for those we serve.  I will be in regular contact the team to ensure that we are seeing the required change brought about.

In the meantime, thank you for all you continue to do to support our children, young people and their families.

Afternoon all,

As you may be aware, Derian House is running a TV advert campaign throughout the month of May, encouraging people to leave us a gift in their Wills.

The advert features Holly’s parents Jenny and Mark Prince.

You can see the attached spreadsheet which shows the dates and times that the ad will be running on ITV Granada (in case you fancy tuning in). We have some great slots, on the evening news, The Chase, Lorraine and This Morning.

The advert’s debut will be during the 10.30am ad break on This Morning.

The adverts will ask people to give us a call to ask about how they can make a Will for free with us. The phone number goes straight through to fundraising, but if anyone happens to find themselves taking the call when nobody from fundraising is available then please take down their details using the form you’ll find at www.derianhouse.co.uk/legacy. This will ensure we can send them an info guide on what to do.

Thanks so much for your support with this – I appreciate it.

Caroline

P.s. Here’s the ad: https://youtu.be/iFJe7u-ywSE

Hi everyone, just a brief update on a few things….

1. You’ll be pleased to know that the Trustees have approved a 3% cost of living increase which will be awarded in your May salary and backdated for the month of April.  Other fab news for staff is that as Derian House became a “Real Living Wage” employer, rather than a minimum wage employer, 12 colleagues will have their hourly rate increased in line with the increase for RLW employers.  This is great news and we are really pleased to be able to pass on this benefit.
2. Many of you will know Lisa Kauffmann who has been a Trustee here at Derian for many years, and last year took up the role of Chair of the Trustee Board at Together For Short Lives.  Sadly, Lisa has had to resign from her trustee roles due to her health.  She will be a huge loss, brining that paediatric consultant experience to both the board and to the QSI sub group.  I am now looking to find an equally experience medic to fill these huge shoes.  Bringing experience across a range of health services is really important for the board and therefore I have this week appointed a new trustee who is a physio by profession, and is currently Chief Allied Health Professional at LTHTR.  Claire Granato will officially join over the coming months but we should expect to see her around over the next few weeks.
3. We welcomed colleagues from the RCN on Monday.  It was really interesting to meet Melissa, Lead Nurse for the NW, and hear about the support the RCN can provide not only for our colleagues who may be members, but the organisation as a whole.
4. We’ve had a really big interest from across the care team in developing their skill sets across our community provision, this is wonderful to hear and is a key feature of our new integrated way of working.
5. We say a very fond farewell to Kirsty on Monday as she embarks on a new role with the Kentown Nursing Team, we are delighted Kirsty will remain within the L&SC wider system and look forward to working closely in the future.
6. We now know what are funding looks like for this year from the L&SC ICB, which encompasses almost half of the children’s hospice grant.  We will receive a reduced amount for this year, mainly as the education and exemplar projects were match funded, and this funding no longer exists. Discussions with GM continue.
7. Leadership is about making popular decisions, but sometimes it’s about making unpopular decisions.  This time last year I was proposing significant changes to the trustees regarding our retail portfolio based on the financial performance of the shops that I had inherited.  We were on track at that point to make a loss of around £200,000.00 on retail.  I had to take some brave decisions with the charity at the heart of them and we had to sadly make some staff redundant and re-shape the retail offer.  I am absolutely over the moon to share that under Micks leadership the retail team have absolutely flourished and we have ended the year in an almost break even position.  Our budget for this year 24/25 will make a surplus for the first time in years.  I’d like to thank all the staff across retail, including those working hard in the shops, Tony who has stepped up as Area Manager and the warehouse/driving team Gaz & Peter, who have all worked their socks off turning our retail portfolio around.  We are now in a position to start thinking about how we grow retail, and that’s just amazing….
8. My favourite email this week came from Katie McNally… no… not the car accident…. BUT THE AMAZING ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR YOUNG ADULTS !!!! Derian Dynamos rock again !!!  so inspiring and so wonderful that we can create opportunities like this for our CYP
9. And finally I’d like to shine a bright light on the education team, just back yesterday from the Nursing Times Awards where we had made a prestigious short list.  Sadly, this year wasn’t our year, however that takes absolutely nothing away from the team and the wider care team for their support for student nurses.  Well done everyone…. We’re very proud !

That’s about it for now, thanks everyone for your hard work and commitment

We didn’t want to leave them hanging about on the Intranet on their own, so now that we’ve got four (relatively) new starters, let’s find out more about them!

Gillian Viragh – HR Administrator

Our latest addition to the HR department has spent most of her working career in HR, with her previous position at a small, family-run planning company lasting for seven years… when she was only supposed to be the maternity cover for 10 months!

Gillian was browsing for jobs when she came across the one at Derian House, and it was exactly what she was looking for. She’s lived next door to us for a whopping 24 years, and is only a six-minute walk away. Not only is it super convenient, but over the years she’s heard loads about the amazing work that our charity does, and she wanted to be a part of it.

Gillian loves working with people, and especially watching staff members develop throughout their career. She’s already hit the ground running when it comes to recruitment, having been part of the employment of over ten members of staff since she first started back in February.

Outside of work, Gillian enjoys planning holidays abroad and being mum to Maisy and Marnie.

FUN FACT: Gillian and her twin brother were born in Hungary!

Paula Buchanan – Administrator/Receptionist

After 35 years working in a range of customer service roles, Paula sought after a job where she could truly make a difference, and was at a point in her life where she wanted to be a part of something special.

With a stretch of 16 years of HomeServe, Paula brings to Derian a range of experience of working with people, and she’s already made a big impression with our Reception volunteers who she works closely alongside.

When she first started with us early last month, our Administrator was looking forward to being part of a team that supports one another, and meeting all of our staff and volunteers – and she’s absolutely loving it!

When she’s not at work, Paula loves running, and is mum to both Oliver and Mia, and dog mum to Norma the seven-year-old Shih Tzu.

FUN FACT: Paula was once at a friend’s wedding where guests included Declan Donnelly and Stephen Mulhern!

Sarah James – Estate Maintenance Support

The first of our two new starters within the Estates Team is Sarah, who currently lives in Crewe! (But not for much longer, hopefully!)

After 17 years of living in Chorley, our latest handy-woman relocated for her son’s education, but is (almost) back and ready to get stuck in here at Derian House.

Sarah has worked in maintenance for most of her career, with a stretch at Cuerden Valley Park where she worked as a park ranger as part of a tightknit team. She’s got a degree in ecology and conservation management, and even has both a chainsaw and tractor license!

She’s always known of Derian House whilst living in Chorley, and has even attended some of our fundraisers. She’s used to working at charity events due to her time at Cuerden, so is looking forward to more of the same here at the hospice.

When she’s not working – or travelling to and from Crewe – Sarah is a keen gardener and has her own vegetable patch, and also enjoys a spot of camping.

FUN FACT: Sarah’s nickname is Jimmy – so if you shout it, she’ll answer!

Ken Whalen – Estates Maintenance Support

Completing our line-up is Ken from Darwen, who has spent 20 years of his working life at Twin Valleys (previously Together Housing). He’s always held up grounds maintenance roles, varying from Crown Wall Coverings to BwD Council, and is looking forward to making a difference here at Derian House.

Ken actually did a sponsored walk for the hospice many moons ago, dressed head-to-toe as Freddie Kruger as he hiked from Ewood Park to Derian… and then back again!

He’s looking forward to using his skillset to make a difference here at Derian House, and learning about all the facilities here at the hospice.

Outside of work, Ken loves doing anything arty, caring for his house rabbit Shadow, and holidaying to Thailand.

FUN FACT: Ken is a a seasoned pumpkin carver, and spends his spare time making incredible 3D creations (mainly in the month of October).

Hi everyone,

Dave from IT here! Hope everyone is having a good week.

This is an email to let you know that Derian is about to start using a new email spam filter.

The system is called “Barracuda”.

Below is a link to a short document on how this affects you! I strongly suggest you give it a read today, as we’ll be rolling it out shortly.

https://tinyurl.com/Barracudabbey

Hi everyone,

Here’s a run-down of some of the news and issues discussed at last week’s LMT meeting…

FACILITIES

• There is a brand new menu set to be launched, with the exciting return of the popular salad bar!

CARE

• We are currently still operating at four beds, and offering respite on a month-by-month basis. The nurse recruitment is back on and we’re hopeful to reach more nurses and clinical support workers.
• LifeNoW charity has now closed down, and the trustees have transferred us the remaining funds which are being ring-fenced for young people services in the future.

FINANCE AND FUNDRAISING

• The last 2 months have been steady across income and retail and our investments are doing well.
• Fundraising finished the 2023/24 year strongly, bringing in £3.2m, which was £300k over budget.
• We are recruiting a Fundraising Manager to run the Community and Events Fundraising team under Mick Croskery’s leadership.
• Our investments have performed well over the last three months to boost reserves.
• We have finished the extended financial year to April at £37,000 operating surplus which is great news as we budgeted a deficit.

COMMS & MARKETING

• Our spring campaign ‘Daniella’s Story’ will be hitting the doorsteps of our donors in late May, and it’s a moving story about how we have supported Daniella through a variety of Derian services – she has a unique story as she’s used our bereavement services with Arthur, and continues to access our respite service with his twin, Tommy.
• We had the privilege of being shown the first draft of The Little Things yesterday, in its raw two-hour form. There’s still some work to be done, but we’re confident that the documentary is going to make a massive impact.

RETAIL

• Retail has seen six months of positive figures, and the refits of Horwich, Preston and Blackburn have helped this along. We’ve had some positive feedback and increased sales already.
• Retail finished the 2023/24 year in a strong position. In the last six months we have reversed the position from a predicted loss to one where we are set to make a profit in the coming year. This is a testament to the hard work of everyone involved.

GENERAL

• SMI has now been updated with everyone’s holidays and bank holidays, which are now merged as one.
• If anyone would like to put themselves forward as a CQC Champion or a fire marshal, please speak with Anthony Mohammed and John Boe respectively.

RECRUITMENT

• There’s lots of recruitment happening at the moment which is very exciting, starting with our new Estates Maintenance Support Ken, who will be joining us on Monday, he will spend a lot of his time working in our gardens.
• We’ve also got a new chef, Nicola, joining us in the next few weeks.
• From the 6^th May, we’ll see seven members of new care team staff starting with us over a staggered three-week period.
• Executive assistant to Catherine, Julie, will join us in June, and Catherine’s deputy, Bridget, will start with us on 20^th May.
• We also look forward to welcoming two family engagement leads, Natalie and Ionie.

Hello team Derian,

Welcome to my update for this week.  I hope you find the information useful, and as always please do pop in and see me if you have any questions on the content.

So let’s talk growth…. What do we mean when we say we are growing ?

I wanted to clarify with you all about the level of recruitment we have across the charity at the moment.  I know that many of you are wondering why we are recruiting to some of the positions currently advertised/being recruited to, so I thought I’d try to provide some context for you.  If you remember the staff briefings that were held in November, we shared the ambitious plans for growth across the charity, in particularly our care offer.  And whilst we have had to step back a little bit on this growth plan due to staffing pressures, the plan is very much to build back capacity and continue to reach for our goals.

So with this comes the need to invest in our care team staff, and we have been appointing CSWs and Nurses, and we need to continue to recruit more.  With the staff we have recruited so far we expect to be in a position to increase our in house care from 4 to 5 beds in July, and would hope to aim to 6 in the Autumn, subject to continuing to recruiting staff.  We’ve also recognised that driving the growth plan forward is a HUGE task, much bigger than we first realised, and to achieve this Catherine has requested additional support in a leadership capacity to free her up to focus on the strategic side of her role, and so we have appointed Bridget Thomas who will join the team as Deputy Clinical Director on the 20^th May.  In addition, Catherine and Bridget will need dedicated admin support to free up Kelly and Rebecca, and so a part time PA role has been recruited to, and Julie will start in June.

The investment in the care side of the charity is much needed otherwise we will not achieve what we need to in ensuring we not only get back to previous recent capacity levels, but that we fly past them and then move forward to increasing capacity to a 10 bed model.  Yes – 10 beds !

It’s probably at this point that I share with you all that the Trustees have asked me to develop a proposal for getting us to 10 beds available every night for a range of complex and stable children and young people.  Ruth and I have worked up a draft staffing model including specialist roles and an increased medical model, and this has been costed.  I’m looking forward to exploring this with the trustees next week.  If approved this will create opportunities for development across the care team.  We have a very supportive Board and if the plans are in line with what they wish for us to deliver they will approve the funds required to achieve a vibrant, busy, and most importantly high quality safe in-house offer for more bcyp.  It is really exciting !!

As part of this we will review the facilities and other resources needed to support the growth.  One discussion is about a dedicated nursing station in the children’s bedroom corridor, but there will be much more, and I want you all to be part of these discussions.

What is absolutely clear though, and we are under no illusion, is that we are not going to be opening 10 beds any time soon.  This is a planned approach and will require careful project management, but the very fact that we are looking at how we do this is brilliant and hopefully provides clarity for everyone on what we are trying to achieve.

The other side of the recruitment is in non-care roles.  Clearly if we are growing our services we will need to raise more money and have a bigger back office support function, and this is why we are now investing in these areas, to build the platform ready to grow.

If you have any feedback on the ambitions, or want to chat to me about any aspect of it please do.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

K

Hi everyone,

It’s St George’s Day next week on Tuesday 23^rd April, and in celebration of the day we ask if you could wear something red or white.

For all staff who require to be IPC compliant, to carry out your role please ensure you are bare below the elbow and maintain IPC standards.

MONDAY 15^th

• Say hello to our new starter Sarah James, who joins us today as our new Estate Maintenance Support.

• It’s movie time – what film would we like to watch in the Cinema today?

TUESDAY 16^th

• Derian Playgroup is back this morning, where our babies and toddlers will be enjoying a morning of music, messy play and fun in the Seaside Room from 10:00am – 11:30am.

• Our children and young people will be enjoying a therapeutic TAC PAC session with Claire (Wellbeing & Play Worker) in the Sensory Room this afternoon.

• Individual and group sessions of Music Therapy with Martha will be held in the Snug from 2:00pm this afternoon.

• Trustees, donors and representatives from LifeNoW will be visiting us for a ‘Goodbye’ event, as we celebrate the work they’ve collaboratively done with us over the last five years.

WEDNESDAY 17^th

• Our gardening volunteer Jackie will be up in the Greenhouse from 10am – 12pm, hosting a plant sale in aid of Derian House. Cash is preferred but card payments can be made at Reception as an alternative.

• We’ll be spending our morning making spring wreaths in the Messy PlayZone.

• Join our music teacher Rachel in the Snug from 11:00am – 12:00pm for her weekly hour of music.

• Fancy a splash? Our children and young people will be enjoying a session of hydrotherapy in the pool this afternoon.

THURSDAY 18^th 

• It’s Rainbow Day! Have a root through your wardrobes and see what colourful items you can find – but please remember to adhere to IPC policies when doing so.

• This morning, you’ll find us in the Messy PlayZone doing rainbow crafts and collages, and sun-catcher making.

• Join our children and young people for a colourful music and movement session with ribbons and scarves, which will be held in the Messy PlayZone this afternoon.

• John (Family Counsellor)’s fortnightly mindful meditation for all staff will take place in the Cinema from 4pm today. If you need to take a weight off your mind then please feel free to come along and enjoy the opportunity to relax.

FRIDAY 19^th

• We’ll be in Danni’s Diner this morning, making face-themed biscuits to take home.

• What’s that smell? It’s time to play one of our iconic Derian games in the Messy PlayZone this morning – Smelly Bingo!

• Siblings group Chill Out & Chat will be meeting in the Seaside Room this evening for their monthly session.

SATURDAY 20^th

• An abundance of our Lodgers will be here today and tomorrow for a special social weekend, where they’ll be making plenty of memories with their friends.

• Danni’s Club – for our younger siblings – will meet in the Seaside Room this afternoon.

SUNDAY 21^st

• The social weekend will continue up in the Lodge for our young people.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

• A huge thanks to all of our staff and volunteers who helped out at yesterday’s Stars & Cars event at Bolton Arena – the day was a tremendous success, with thousands of guests flocking to meet their heroes and some epic movie vehicles. We can’t wait to see how much we raised!

• If you would like to share with the rest of Derian what your department is up to in the next 7 days, please send an email to cameron.murray@derianhouse.co.uk before Friday the week before.

Have a great week everyone! J

We have signed a contract with Abbey ICT to support us with any I.T. issues on a permanent basis.

If you have an issue with your computer, the first step will be to email support@abbeyict.com and a ticket will be opened for the job.

If it is an urgent matter, you can also call Abbey ICT on: 01254 272000, option 1.

A member of the Abbey ICT team will also be on hand to answer questions or help find solutions to any problems once a week (this will usually be a Wednesday).

For any other queries about IT please contact John Boe.

TUESDAY 26^th

• Karen (CEO), alongside members of the Fundraising Team, will attend the monthly Gambling Oversight and Assurance Meeting.

• We’ll be welcoming some of our Derian families into the Seaside Room for Family Day Care fun… with an Easter theme, of course!

• Join us in the Messy PlayZone this morning for Easter craft activities.

• What’s that smell? It’s smelly bingo time! We’ll be in the Messy PlayZone playing one of our favourite games.

• The Education Team will once again be teaching palliative care modules to colleagues from Greater Manchester in the Conference Room today.

• Say hello to our new student Janice, who is a return-to-practise Learning Disabilities Nurse and will be here at the hospice for the next seven weeks.

• Individual and group sessions of Music Therapy with Martha will be held in the Snug from 2:00pm this afternoon.

WEDNESDAY 27^th

• Claire (Wellbeing & Play Worker) will be in the Sensory Room this morning, hosting a therapeutic TAC PAC session for our children and young people.

• Join our music teacher Rachel in the Snug from 11:00am – 12:00pm for her weekly hour of music.

• Our in-house children and young people will be enjoying fun and splashes in the hydrotherapy pool this afternoon.

• Derian grandparents will meet up at their monthly Cornerstones session in the Seaside Room this morning.

THURSDAY 28^th

• We’ll be making colourful tissue paper flowers in the Messy PlayZone this morning.

• Our pet therapy pooch Shuna will be roaming the corridors with her human Linda for cuddles and kisses with our in-house children and young people.

• Get your aprons on; it’s time to make some delicious hot cross buns in Danni’s Diner this afternoon.

• Our lads from School’s Out will join us at the hospice today for plenty of fun with friends.

• Our Education Team will be teaching palliative care modules to colleagues in Blackburn today.

FRIDAY 29^th

• As we await Easter, we’ll be spending Good Friday making chocolate Easter nests and cakes in Danni’s Diner…

• …and enjoying plenty of themed arts and crafts in the Messy PlayZone this afternoon!

• There is a basic life support drop-in session for anyone wanting to attend in the Skills Lab from 2:00pm – 5:00pm.

SATURDAY 30^th

• Our children and young people will be enjoying a Saturday morning splash in the hydrotherapy pool.

• Youth Family Drop-in continues with a monthly session held today in the Lodge.

• Stretch out and relax in a guided relaxation and massage held in the Sensory Room this morning.

SUNDAY 31^st

• Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates! We hope you have a cracking time – our children and young people certainly will be, with an Easter egg hunt around the Sensory Garden in the morning and Easter egg decorating in Danni’s Diner throughout the afternoon.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

• If you would like to share with the rest of Derian what your department is up to in the next 7 days, please send an email to cameron.murray@derianhouse.co.uk before Friday the week before.

Have a great week everyone! J