I visited North Wales' Tŷ Gobaith Children’s Hospice near Conwy, for a meeting and tour with the Chief Executive, Andy Goldsmith, and the Director of Care, Karen Wright.
Tŷ Gobaith provides care and support to life-limited children, young people and their families from North Wales. Together, Tŷ Gobaith and its sister Hospice, Hope House, Oswestry, support more than 750 local families who are either caring for a terminally ill child, or whose child has died.
Our discussion included their exemplar Out of Hours service, delivered collaboratively with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, their Snowflake Room, a special temperature controlled room where children who have died can spend time before their funeral so that their families and friends can say goodbye, and their aim to provide more specialist palliative end-of-life care for children and young people (up to 25) and to do that in partnership.
It costs £6.5 million every year to run their services, but only approximately one month’s income comes from statutory sources and for the other 11 months of the year they are dependent on public support.
It was a pleasure to attend Flintshire Local Voluntary Council’s 22nd Annual General Meeting at Theatr Clwyd, Mold, which included both the Tom Jones Award for Youth Volunteering and Flintshire’s Best Kept Communities Awards.
Congratulations to all the winners, finalists and entrants. Flintshire Local Voluntary Council (FLVC) is the independent umbrella and support organisation for voluntary and community groups in Flintshire, supporting, promoting and developing voluntary and community action. Through their involvement in the North Wales Social Value Forum Steering Group, they have sought to influence those who commission support services to account for the wider benefits of Third Sector Support Services and the social return on investment they generate.
It was also a pleasure to attend the Big Dee Day Launch 2019 at the RNLI Lifeboat Station in Flint. The annual Big Dee Day, held since 2007, is one of the biggest community and conservation based events in North East Wales and North West England. This year’s event, which marked the beginning of a week of clean-up events along the River Dee and its catchment area, saw awards given by Flintshire, Denbighshire and Cheshire West and Cheshire.
Other engagements included the Induction Service for Rev Elfed Godding as Minister at Bethania Community Church in Leeswood and a meeting with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to discuss the lessons learned from their clinical governance of a constituent’s case.
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