Working in partnership with Kentown Support, Gaddum is providing specialist counselling and therapeutic support across all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester for parents, siblings, and family members of children receiving palliative or end-of-life care.
PRESS RELEASE
Date: Tuesday 23rd June 2026
UK based charity, Kentown Support has launched its groundbreaking community-based Palliative and End-of-Life-Care programme across Greater Manchester for babies, children and young people living with life-limiting conditions, ending the postcode lottery.
This programme addresses significant gaps in children’s palliative care provision, including limited community-based end-of-life support for children and their families.
Working in partnership with Kentown Support, Gaddum is providing specialist counselling and therapeutic support across all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester for parents, siblings, and family members of children receiving palliative or end-of-life care.
Lauren Edwards, Programmes & Strategy Director for Gaddum, said:
“Families deserve compassionate and consistent emotional support, which is what Gaddum brings to the Kentown Support Programme. Delivered by expert bereavement therapists, our counselling offer helps parents and siblings find strength and stability during some of the most emotionally challenging periods of their lives.”
For many babies and children, dying at home has not been an option with only four out of ten localities commissioning a community-based palliative care nurse.
By working with existing local services and adding provision where there is a gap, the Kentown Children’s Community Palliative Care programme brings together Nursing Support, (Greater Manchester ICB), Coordination, (Together for Short Lives), Therapeutic and Counselling and Bereavement Support, (Gaddum), and dedicated training and supervision for Kentown Support Nurses, (Alder Hey Children’s Hospital).
With the number of children with life-limiting conditions continuing to rise and with a higher prevalence in children from minority ethnic populations and areas of high deprivation, it is only with system change and different ways of working that levelling up of children’s community palliative care provision across Greater Manchester and indeed all areas of the UK, is achievable.
The Government’s Modern Service Framework for Palliative Care and End-of-Life-Care, sets out an ambitious agenda: equitable access to high quality support and a more responsive needs-based approach.
The Kentown programme in Greater Manchester provides the opportunity to reach into communities where families have the highest need, such as those from minority ethnic backgrounds.
A single point of access is being launched, enabling professionals and families to make a referral quickly and easily.
Kentown Support has also partnered with the Cicely Saunders Institute to establish a Centre of Excellence in Children’s Palliative Care at King’s College London, led by Professor Lorna Fraser, ensuring its programmes, are driven and supported by data and evidence.
Alongside providing education and training for health and social care professionals, the centre will inform policy and drive innovations in care delivery to enable all children and young people to have access to the care they require, including palliative care, when and where they need it.
To find out more about this service, or to complete a referral form, visit the Kentown support website.
ENDS
About Kentown Support
Kentown Support was established in 2025 with the generous support of The Kentown Wizard Foundation. Kentown Support’s purpose is that every child with a life limiting condition and their family across the UK has access to a model of round the clock integrated community palliative care.
Kentown Support works to:
- develop sustainable, high-quality community-based children’s palliative care teams
- support and collaborate with healthcare professionals, local services, and community partners to create a more coordinated, accessible services
- share and fund research and training resources to improve understanding, build knowledge and drive advancements in children’s palliative care
About Gaddum
Gaddum is a mental health and carers charity that has provided counselling services and practical support to individuals and communities throughout Greater Manchester for almost 200 years.
Working in partnership with Kentown Support, Gaddum provides specialist counselling and therapeutic support across all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester for parents, siblings, and family members of children receiving palliative or end-of-life care.
Find out more at: www.gaddum.org.uk
Media Contacts:
Kentown Support
Debbie Jacobs | Marketing and Communications Manager
debbie.jacobs@kentownsupport.org.uk, 0730 994 1438
Gaddum
Hannah Burns | Marketing and Communications Lead
