Acorns Children’s Hospice lands award nomination for pandemic response
A charity which has been at the forefront in the battle against coronavirus has been shortlisted for a national award for its emergency response to the pandemic.
Acorns Children’s Hospice, which provides care and support to life-limited and life-threatened children and their families, has been recognised in the Breakthrough of the Year category at this year’s Third Sector Awards.
The charity’s Covid-19 emergency response – designed to provide care to the most vulnerable families in the region caught up in the pandemic – included the unprecedented decision to temporarily close one of the charity’s three hospices and offer it to the NHS.
It has now been shortlisted for the category, which celebrates charities that have introduced new and different ways of working.
Toby Porter, Acorns chief executive, said: “We are thrilled to have been shortlisted for the Third Sector Awards and honoured to be recognised at national level for the important work we have done to support some of the community’s most vulnerable families throughout this crisis.
“Acorns was determined to step-up and these plans allowed us to continue to prioritise children’s hospice care for the most vulnerable and support the wider response of the NHS and social care system.”
In late-March in the early stages of lockdown, Acorns – which has hospices in Selly Oak, Birmingham, and in Walsall – became one of the first children’s hospice in the country to launch its emergency plan in response to the pandemic.
Following the temporary closure of its hospice in Birmingham for the first time in its 30-year history, Acorns then redeployed its staff to its other two hospices in Walsall and Worcester.
The winners of this year’s Third Sector Awards
will be announced in October.
