Children's Services

We provide care at home for both adults and children and still one of the only hospices providing acute oncology care and end of life care to seriously ill children in their own home. We provide a wide range of care for babies, children and young people of all ages (0-19 years).

We serve a population of more than 500,000 in Kent with over 90% of our care services provided at home. We offer a care service for children of all ages with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions, In Dartford Gravesham and Swanley we provide clinical nursing support working with children’s families to provide care at their place of choice, which is often their own home. This means the children can receive care in familiar surroundings. Across Dartford Gravesham Swanley and Bexley in addition we provide respite and wellbeing services which include, Play therapy, Music Therapy, Counselling, Bereavement support to mention just a few.

We work closely with a variety of care providers to deliver chemotherapy, palliative care and end of life care to children 24 hours a day, for 365 days a year. We are able to care for your child and enable them to die at home, surrounded by their family.

Our Services

Nursing Care

Our nurses work closely with families and young people to provide support and care to help manage the symptoms of their illness. This process helps families to feel informed and involved in the care process for their child.

Caring for Children with Cancer

We support children receiving cancer treatment and chemotherapy in their own homes, helping reduce the need for hospital visits.

Respite Care at Home

Respite care can be anywhere from a couple of hours to a full day session. During the session we provide holistic care for the child and sometimes their siblings. We are trained to provide personal centred care to each individual child so parents can leave us to pop out to the shops, have a sleep or spend time for themselves or with the siblings. As well as personal and medical care we bring bags full of interactive and creative play, this may be getting messy exploring different textures, painting and memory work. Setting up tents to relax looking at sensory lights whilst listening to their favourite Disney songs. We also venture out to farms, shopping centres and parks. Hannah Ives - Assistant Practitioner - ellenor

Counselling Services

We provide a range of counselling services for children and parents.

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GEM’s (available to 7 –16 year olds)

We support grieving families with care groups including parents and grieving children with our GEMS group “Grief Every Memory is Special”.

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Play Therapy

Play therapy is a therapeutic approach to help troubled and distressed children and adults explore painful feelings, and understand traumatic experiences. Our play sessions are tailored to promote choice and develop skills.

Music Therapy

A therapeutic intervention which uses music to form a relationship with another person, irrespective of musical ability. It's an emotional outlet for patients and carers and can distract those from feeling pain or stress.

• Our Music Therapy has been kindly contributed to by The Radcliffe Trust.

Transition into Adulthood

We work with other organisations to enable and encourage our young people to fully participate in their local communities, and support them in the process of transitioning to adult services.

Partnership Working

We are proud to be a member of Children’s Hospices across London (CHaL), which is a group of six hospices that provide specialist support for children and young people.

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I want to refer my child

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Need more information?

If you would like more information about our services, please contact our Children's team on 01474 320007

CQC Rating

All hospices and care providers are given a CQC rating, which reflects the level of care provided. This rates the quality of 5 key areas: safety, effectiveness, caring, responsiveness and leadership. At ellenor, we are proud of our CQC rating which reflects the efforts of our staff, from strategy planners, to carers, to cleaners.