Siân Wicks reflects on her first year of being Chief Executive at Haven House...
The sixth of November 2022 was the day I started my journey as CEO of Haven House, and the past year has been an absolute privilege. I feel just as delighted and honoured to be leading the hospice as I did on day one. Every day I witness the incredible care that is provided by our nursing and support teams, and I am awe of their compassion, resilience and commitment to our children and families.
At the heart of Haven House Children’s Hospice are some exceptional people - our children, families, staff, volunteers, supporters, healthcare colleagues and partners. I am fortunate to work alongside the most incredible people whose dedication and love for Haven House is simply extraordinary.
Haven House serves the babies, children and young people of Northeast London, West Essex, and Northeast Hertfordshire. Haven House is a joyful place where children and families are supported and where special memories are made through to end-of-life care. We are one of the very small number of children’s hospices in Greater London.
We are proud to support the children and their families at Haven House. Whether that is through respite care, our therapy such as physio, music therapy, providing counselling sessions for the whole family, supporting the siblings through our Buddies programme, or supporting families with end-of-life care, every single one of our children and their families are our priority. In 2021 we delivered more than 36 thousand hours of care, supported 400 children and did over 796 home visits.
The feedback from our community is testament to how much our staff and volunteers do for our families, always exceeding expectations and leaving them with memories that bring comfort, even many years on. A heard a lovely story recently from a member of our care team. She was on the train on her way back from visiting a child in hospital and a lady stopped her and said, “Oh my goodness! Haven House. You looked after my granddaughter and her twin brother. I can't thank you enough for all you did for us. We will never forget it. You amazing people.”
In November 2021 we were still emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, navigating the Omicron variant. Despite these challenges, I am very proud that as a hospice we remained open and continued to provide compassionate and safe care to seriously ill children and their families whenever and wherever they needed us; be this at the hospice, in family homes or in hospitals. Our response to pandemic shone a light on our specialist knowledge and skills, which were in demand more than ever before.
While we’ve faced some challenging times, there’s been some lovely highlights over the past year. It’s been wonderful to bring back some of our much-loved events for both children, families, and supporters. Seeing our sibling support group make the most of our beautiful grounds during the warmer months and more recently at our Halloween event was fantastic. I particularly enjoyed our Big Night out at the Orbit, the Jubilee Tea Party in our grounds during the Summer and our Sparkle Walk. Bringing people together safely and seeing everyone smiling at these events is always a personal highlight for me. I am looking forward to our festivities in the coming weeks. Our woodland surroundings make it a magical setting for our Christmas Fair and Family Drive through Grotto. Everyone makes such a huge effort to create joyful memories.
As we enter the winter months, there are many difficulties in the world around and an even greater need to look after our families and each other. We recognise that the cost of living is making charity donations more challenging than ever before, and I am forever grateful for the magnificent support we receive – without you, our supporters, we simply would not exist. Thank you.
The fascinating thing about Haven House is that there is always so much more to learn and do. We have so much to look forward too, as we mark our 20th anniversary in 2023. This will be a real milestone in our history, a time of reflection but also an opportunity to look towards our future and continue with our ambitious strategy - to continue to develop outstanding care for the whole of our community and to be at the forefront of innovative specialist palliative care for the next 20 years and beyond.
I admire the incredible strength, courage and personalities of the children and families that we support here at Haven House. We know how important our services are to these families, and we look forward to expanding what we do to care even more effectively and working collaboratively with our partners. I hope to bring as much energy and passion to continuing to make Haven House a truly exceptional organisation. I’m thrilled to be part of this journey and feel so lucky to be able to lead and represent Haven House into the next chapter.