Claire House Hospice is asking the people of Liverpool to help raise £10m to complete an expansion that will create a round-the-clock care facility in West Derby. The charity secured planning permission from Liverpool Council this summer and is now appealing to the city to support its “Make the Hospice Happen” campaign.
Expansion plans and the need for care
Claire House was given the former Carmelite Monastery site in West Derby in 2017 and has since carried out minor internal refurbishment to the ground floor to make it functional for day-care facilities for families and children. For many families, distance has been one of the biggest barriers to accessing hospice care, with long journeys to the charity’s Wirral hospice often taking time away from being together.
Liverpool Council’s planning committee approved upgrades to the site on Honey’s Green Lane in June to create a 24/7 care facility. The sensitive transformation is designed to provide a welcoming, purpose-built hospice environment that combines modern clinical care with child-centred proposals.
Chief executive explains the motivation
David Pastor, chief executive, told the ECHO that getting sign-off for the build was “really just getting us to the start line.” He said: "When we've gone back and looked at why we need to do this, we know that today we're caring for 500 children and families, and we know that that number will be at least 1,000 in the future so we need to be able to double the care that we're able to provide."
He added: "Over the last 10 years, we've supported over 1,000 children at the end of their lives, which means every year we're looking after classrooms of children with end of life care. That's just hugely compelling, the need is massive. We're kind of very much now slightly beyond the start line, but we know that we can't do this without the support of our amazing city."
Funding and timeline
The £10m sought from donations is part of a £23m total build cost. Pastor said some finances were being arranged privately while the hospice retained savings earmarked for care provision. He said: "We want to be able to create this amazing facility for the city of Liverpool and its children and be able to then provide care in it as soon as possible. We know that we're taking a bit of a risk and I'd love to tell you we've got it all covered, but we haven't."
During the build phase, the West Derby site will close for a short period. Support from Everton in the Community and Little Lights will ensure no services are lost while work is ongoing. Pastor said the goal is to open in summer 2029, with work potentially starting on site by January, partly to pause the pace on costs amid inflation.
Pastor also shared a personal reason for the expansion, saying his son Jude didn't breathe for the first two minutes of his life, which he described as the longest two minutes of his life. He said: "We think this will never happen to us, but there's two kinds of big things for us of being taken this far by our supporters. Number one is obviously there's the financial side of things. We know, given enough time, that people are inspired to help our children in this city and then number two is, it helps to unlock and kind of help people to see children's hospice care as being here and available, so you are able to tell your neighbour."
To support the campaign and donate, visit the Claire House website.
