About Julia's House in Wiltshire

Our Devizes children’s hospice building is the only one in Wiltshire. But our outstanding care reaches far beyond our hospice walls. We provide free respite care for the most seriously ill children and their families however they need it most – in their home, at our hospice and in the heart of your community.

How our Wiltshire care has grown

Beginning in Dorset as a community-led service in 2003, Julia’s House soon became established as an award-winning care providing charity. A few years later, Salisbury District Hospital identified a need for flexible care for children with a terminal oncology diagnosis. Julia’s House responded by trialling a small community-based children’s care service in Wiltshire. One of the original two nurses in this Wiltshire pilot was Claire Hudson-Cooper, who is now the Director of Care for Julia’s House.

The number of families that responded to the trial far exceeded expectations, and our care provision in the county soon grew in response to demand. With an outpouring of support and generosity from the local community and beyond, we opened our purpose-built children’s hospice in Devizes in 2017.

And today we provide our outstanding care for families across the county – from Salisbury to Swindon – with numbers increasing year on year.

Making every moment count

For the families that we care for, every goodbye or kiss goodnight could be the last. Our nurses and carers give families the chance to make lasting memories, help them to get through moments of despair, and make the time they have together the best that it can be.

Each hour of clinical, emotional and practical care we provide helps families to feel less isolated and exhausted, and relieves the ongoing pressure of providing round the clock care for a child with complex needs – the kind of pressure that can lead a family to breaking point.

And when a child dies, our nurses and carers continue to be there side-by-side with families. We provide the end of life care families want for their child, and help them to navigate the grief and trauma of the unthinkable in the years that follow.

We want to be there for every seriously ill child and family that needs us. But we can only do that with your support. We can only care for them if we care together.

Why we're running the Together We Care Appeal in Wiltshire

We've launched the Together We Care Appeal in a bid to raise the £1.5m needed each year to provide a lifeline of care for the most seriously ill children and their families in Wiltshire.

Julia’s House relies almost entirely on public donations, but we are currently raising £1m less in Wiltshire than we need to run our critical service throughout the county each year.

The number of babies, children and young people living with life-limiting conditions has trebled in England over the past two decades to around 87,000. This means there are more children in Wiltshire needing our specialist care than ever before. And due to continuing medical and scientific advances and increased life expectancy, it’s expected that number will continue to rise by 10% by 2030.

Tailored support where it's needed most

Every child referred to Julia’s House has a life-limiting or life-threatening condition, which means there is no reasonable cure for their condition and they are sadly not expected to live beyond early adulthood. These children need 24 hour care for their complex and often rare medical conditions.

Julia's House has a dedicated team of children's nurses, carers, therapists and support workers to provide tailored support for families across Wiltshire and Dorset. Each family receives at least 200 hours of care annually to use however and wherever they need it most. Crucially, Julia’s House supports the whole family and not just the seriously ill child, offering emotional and practical support and essential respite breaks to parents, grandparents and siblings.

Our children's hospice care is planned around the individual child's needs. Our focus is always on what a child can do – smiles, laughter, making friends and sharing achievements, no matter how big or small.

We're a lifeline for families, helping to prevent them from reaching breaking point. But without more local support, we can’t be there for the growing number of children and families who depend on our care.

Help shape our lifeline of care for local families

Make their care today:

Donate £10 to help provide baking or craft supplies for a creative and sensory play session for a child and their brothers and sisters
Donate £20 to help provide a relaxation and complementary therapy session for a stressed and exhausted family
Donate £30 to help provide an hour of specialist care for a seriously ill child and their family
Donate £50 to help provide one month’s supply of vital medical equipment used every day by our nurses and carers with the seriously ill children that we support

Make their care tomorrow:

Donate £250 to help provide a three-hour respite care session in the family home to give exhausted families a break, knowing their child is in safe and expert hands
Donate £350 to help provide crucial one-to-one respite care for a child at our hospice
Donate £1,500 to help provide a month’s supply of essential PPE equipment to keep vulnerable children and families safe at home.
Donate £5,000 to provide up to three years of emotional and practical support to help a family cope with the devastating and life-changing loss of their child
Donate £12,000 to enable a child to spend their final days at home with their family, with the expert and round-the-clock care of our nurses

Build a lifeline of care:

Donate £20,000 to help pay for one of our fantastic carers for one year, so they can continue to bring smiles to local seriously ill children and their families every day
Donate £30,000 to help pay for one of our amazing nurses for one year, so they can care for the most seriously ill children and their families in the local community
Donate £125,000 to help fund our children’s hospice service across Wiltshire for one month

How your donation helps

Thank you for your vital support for local seriously ill children and their families.
All donations that we receive will help to provide care where the need is greatest.

We really couldn't do it without you.

Find out more about how your money is spent

Did you know?

80% of our children need 2 care members for their complex needs

We provide at least 200 hours of care per year for each family we support

We support around 4 family members for every child referred for our care

We're caring for 59 of the most seriously ill children in Wiltshire

Julia's House has a CQC 'Outstanding' rating (Feb 2023), ranking us in the top quartile of all hospices in the UK. Click here to read the report.