The hospice, which recently announced the return of 24/7 end-of-life care at its North Anston base after a challenging period following the Covid-19 pandemic, has secured its place in the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme, in partnership with the award-winning Huddersfield Business School, University of Huddersfield, and supported by the University of Suffolk.
The programme funds a graduate marketing associate at the hospice whose role will be dedicated to helping the charity develop innovative and sustainable income generation and marketing strategies that can be shared as part of a fundraising framework with other children’s hospices nationwide.
The charity will be recruiting for the role in the coming months.
Heidi Hawkins, chief executive of Bluebell Wood, said: “This partnership is hugely exciting for us and comes just at the right time, as we celebrate overcoming a challenging period following the pandemic and completing a redevelopment of our clinical care services.
“We’re now in a position to look ahead and put in place innovative strategies that will help us strive for a sustainable future for the hospice.
“Since we opened nearly 16 years ago, the needs of children with life-limiting conditions have changed. Children are living for longer, with more complex conditions and with more dependence on technology, all of which presents us with an increased need for vital funds so we can deliver the right support and care.
“The knowledge transfer partnership will help us achieve that, sharing expertise to create a blueprint for the integration and automation of income generation and marketing that not only impacts Bluebell Wood and the families we support, but the wider children’s hospice community, too.”
Professor Shona Bettany, University of Huddersfield, is leading the KTP along with Dr Adam Dennett - Subject Group Lead for Marketing, Operations and Analytics, and Dr Fran Hyde – hospice trustee and Associate Professor in Marketing.
Professor Bettany, said: “Children’s hospices such as Bluebell Wood depend heavily on fundraising to allow them to continue to deliver their very specialist and unique services, supporting families and children with life-limiting conditions. However, it’s been a challenging time for many, including Bluebell Wood, with limited government funding and the complex needs of service-users changing over time.
“We’re looking forward to partnering with Bluebell Wood to create innovative strategies, underpinned by research and charity sector expertise, to help the charity grow and secure a sustainable future.”
KTPs are Government-funded programmes aimed at helping UK businesses improve competitiveness, production and performance, part-funded through Innovate UK. The programme involves a collaboration between an organisation, nominated academic mentors from the university and a recent graduate.
Innovate UK is the country’s national innovation agency, which supports research-led innovation in all sectors and technologies, helping businesses grow through the development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services.
Bluebell Wood, which opened in 2008, cares for babies, children and young people from across South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire, North Derbyshire and parts of North Lincolnshire whose lives are sadly just too short, both in their own homes and at the hospice.
As well as clinical care services, it provides a home-from-home for families facing the toughest of times providing plenty of fun activities for families to create special memories together. The team also support other health care providers out in the community and in local hospitals too.
It costs almost £6.7m each year to keep the hospice running, with only around 17 percent of funding from government and the remaining 84 percent generated by fundraising. All services are completely free to families who are referred to Bluebell Wood.
To donate or find out more, visit www.bluebellwood.org or call 01909 517365.
If you would like to find out more about KTPs at the University of Huddersfield, contact ktp@hud.ac.uk