Call to support families impacted by expected Zoe's Place closure

The children's hospice in West Derby is due to shut its doors later this year

Author: Harry BoothPublished 9th Oct 2024

There are calls for answers on what support will be out there for families who are set to lose the lifeline offered by Zoe's Place in West Derby.

The children's hospice is set to close its doors later this year after plans to move to a new site fell through.

Devastated families, who were informed on Monday (7 October), have been directed to other support services, but it's understood that many fear they won't be able to access that because of not meeting the high priority threshold that many services require, due to the challenges they already face.

Liverpool Parent and Carers Forum has contacted services to ask what will happen to children who currently receive specialist support at Zoe's Place and how they'll be supported going forward.

Chair Donna Phipps said:

It's so vital for them to have a contingency plan for our families, they need to know what's going to happen. They haven't got time to be looking around themselves.

"I think that's one of the biggest things that we find when you are a parent of a child or young person with SEND is that your time is taken up by appointments and and all kinds of different things that are an added extra that come on top of your caring responsibilities.

"It is quite worrying and quite stressful and it puts added pressure on families, which they don't need.

"Communication is absolutely key for all of us as parents who have SEND children, but it's also about knowing what what's out there, what next?

"If Zoe's Place does unfortunately close, what else is out there for our families? Because we can't rely all the time on the services that are already out there because they're already stretched to capacity.

It's about keeping everyone in the loop, it's about keeping on talking about this subject because it's really, really important for our families.

"It's a lifeline, it's such a worthy cause. It's such an outstanding organisation and we have to keep it going and trying to keep it open. So it's whatever we can do as a parent carer forum to keep that voice going.

We'll be helping and supporting and very much working with families."

West Derby MP Ian Byrne has released a statement to say he is meeting the board of Zoe's Place today (Thursday) to see what can be done to save the hospice.

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