Under-threat baby hospice to be standalone charity

Closure-threatened baby hospice Zoe's Place says it is to be made into a standalone charity in a bid to make businesses more confident to support it financially.

Earlier this month, the charity announced its Liverpool site, in West Derby, one of three facilities, was set to close after plans for a new hospice-build on a bowling green fell through.

But, following an outcry of support, with public donations totalling more than £2.5m, the charity has said it will create a separate board of trustees for the Liverpool centre.

Michael Cunningham, chair of trustees for the new Liverpool Zoe's Place, said: "We are trying to make sure that every penny donated to Zoe's Place goes to this facility".

Zoe's Place is currently run from a head office in Warwickshire and has sites in Middlesbrough and Coventry.

The charity said it needed to raise more than £5m in the next 30 days to keep a hospice in Liverpool.

At a special meeting earlier at the ACC Exhibition Centre in Liverpool, Mr Cunningham told BBC Radio Merseyside the new board wanted to ensure the charity was "solid for the next 30 years".

He said: "We are trying to make sure that we can be proud of something, that we can be a world standard hospice."

The lease on the Zoe's Place site in Yew Tree Lane expires in June 2025.

Planning permission has already been approved for the new hospice on the former bowling green and Victorian villa at Hayman’s Green, in West Derby.

But the hospice said the cost of building a new hospice had spiralled from the original estimate of £3.5m to in excess of £5m.

Ian Byrne, the independent MP for West Derby, said setting up the Liverpool charity was the "right way forward" to ensure the longevity of the service that was needed.

He said: "It's a charity we are going to create, based in Liverpool and for Liverpool.

"The aim is an absolute focus on Zoe's Liverpool. Zoe's Place is an unbelievably remarkable charity."

Mr Byrne has written to Chancellor Rachel Reeves about Zoe's Place and the future of other children's hospices, which are in a similar situation.

"We are here because we have potentially seen a closure, many hospices will be in this position, we need an honest conversation to make sure that the services are protected."

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