Together for Short Lives is the UK registered charity for children's palliative care. Together for Short Lives’ vision is for children and young people in the UK with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families to have as fulfilling lives as possible, and the best care at the end of life.
Together for Short Lives is a registered charity in England and Wales (1144022) and Scotland (SC044139) and is a company limited by guarantee (7783702).
Together for Short Lives' president is Professor Sir Alan Craft, and Vice President is Dr Ann Goldman. Its patrons include: Simon Cowell, Dame Elizabeth Fradd DBE, FRCN, Rosa Monckton, Mason Mount, John Overton and Holly Willoughby. Rebecca Front is an ambassador for the charity, along with Alex Corbisiero and Lucy Watts MBE.
History
Together for Short Lives was launched as a new UK charity on 1 November 2011.
Together for Short Lives was developed as the new name for ACT & Children's Hospices UK, which merged in October 2011. Prior to merger ACT and Children's Hospices UK were two UK registered charities working within children's palliative care and offering membership services to children's hospice services, children's palliative care professionals and families.
ACT and Children's Hospices UK merged on 1 October 2011 to become one voice for children's palliative care in the UK.
ACT (Association for Children with life-threatening and Terminal conditions) was established in 1988 under the direction of Professor David Baum, at the Institute of Child Health, Bristol and Sister Frances Dominica founder of Helen House hospice for children in Oxford.
ACT was established to develop an information service for families and professionals supporting them; to develop a national network for children's palliative care and to co-ordinate statutory and voluntary services concerned with delivering palliative care to children and families.
Children's Hospices UK (previously known as ACH) was established in 1998 as a national umbrella charity working with independent children's hospices across the UK. It was established to provide a national voice for children's hospices by raising awareness, improving statutory funding of hospices, and to foster collaboration between children's hospice services and to help develop professional practice.
Both ACT and Children's Hospices UK were based in Bristol, UK and had a history of working collaboratively on awareness raising and lobbying, prior to merger in 2011.
Membership and Services
Together for Short Lives is an umbrella charity for services and professionals working across children's palliative care. It offers membership to organisations, including the children's hospice and palliative care services and professionals who provide care and support to babies, children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families.
It offers membership and support to families and runs a UK helpline called the Together for Families Helpline.
In December 2014 Together for Short Lives launched an animation called We’re Having a Baby to communicate the needs of families when they hear the news of their child's diagnosis and also to reassure families that there are specialist children's palliative care services to support them.
The charity provides information and support to families and professionals working across children's palliative care. Together for Short Lives has developed a care pathway approach to delivering care and support to children and families and has published a series of resources to support this including a Core Care Pathway for Children with Life-limiting and Life-threatening Conditions and a Family Companion.
Together for Short Lives’ activity is informed by the needs of children and young people with palliative care need and their families, and by the experience of children's hospice and palliative care services. The charity has an established Parent Carer Advisory Group.
In 2012 Together for Short Lives published a report called Square Table – Local learning and evaluation report which captured the findings of a national listening tour of 42 'square table' events held across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland throughout 2011. More than 1,500 people took part in these events – including families of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions, young people who have grown up using children's palliative care services, health, social care and education professionals and other representatives from across the community.