ACORNS COVID-19 EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN

Acorns Children's Hospice is the largest children's hospice in the UK, providing specialist palliative care and support to life limited and life threatened children and their families across the Midlands.

In late-March, at a time of unprecedented national emergency and as the country approached lockdown, Acorns became one of the first children's hospices in the country to launch its emergency plan in response to the pandemic.

The charity made the unprecedented decision to temporarily close its hospice in Birmingham, one of the first children's hospices in the UK and redeploy staff to its other two hospices. The Birmingham hospice was then offered to the NHS to use as a Covid-19 facility if needed.

The charity also set aside its Black Country hospice in Walsall to admit children from local NHS hospitals with complex care needs - to help acute trusts maximise their intensive care capability.

The plan enabled Acorns to continue providing emergency and end of life hospice care to any family across the region who need it, along with continuing emotional and practical support to the 600 families in strict isolation, who were shielding at home to protect vulnerable children from infection.