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The Standing Council of the Baronetage
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The Baronets' Trust was established in 1985 with the aim of supporting capital projects in the medical field, which are primarily concerned with helping the recovery of sick children.
In recent years the Trust has made a number of grants, chief among these were three major grants - to the Children's Trust at Tadworth, to the expansion and rebuilding of the Children's Unit at Edinburgh Hospital and to the Children's Liver Unit at Birmingham Hospital.
Following grants in recent years to Treloar College and to the new Oxford Children’s Hospital, a donation of £9,061 was made recently to Rockinghorse and The Seaside View Development Centre for children with physical disabilities and special needs. The Centre was opened in June 2007 and was the most significant part of the redevelopment of services for disabled children in Brighton and Hove.
The Centre provides services for young patients from babies to teenagers who have long term development needs. Commonly referrals include Downs Syndrome, Autism and a range of motor and learning disabilities. Several hundred referrals are received each year for assessment, diagnosis and specially tailored treatment programmes.
Because many of the referrals are very young or have learning difficulties, they often have short attention spans or have difficulty in following instructions so best results are achieved by using creative and enjoyable exercises during assessment. Since children are able to concentrate for longer in fresh air the Centre makes use of an external “play area” and wished to extend this by providing an area with soft flooring and child-friendly, coloured graphics cut into it. Crucially, the area is covered by an all-weather canopy so that the facility can be used in most weather conditions – not even a child wishes to be exposed to pouring rain or baking sunshine!
Thus the area can be used to watch a child’s level of creative play with toys or the ability to cope with a physical activity, eg riding a tricycle, or to assess coordination skills. Following assessment and diagnosis the area can provide for practice and development designed for each child’s needs. The versatility of the space and its options will provide specialists with tools to enable disabled children to learn new skills, build confidence and fulfil their potential.
On 28 August 2008, the Chairman, the Secretary and three Baronets local to the area, who are donors to the Trust, were invited to visit the Centre to see for themselves what had been achieved by this comparatively modest investment. They were delighted with the design and realisation of the “play area” and with the enthusiasm of the medical and nursing staff of the Centre.The Trustees have a major fundraising initiative in place which is open to all Baronets and others who would like to help in this important charitable enterprise.
Whilst one-off donations are gratefully received and should be sent to the address below together with a signed Gift Aid Certificate, it is hoped that donors will feel able to sign a Bankers' Order for an annual contribution
The Secretary to the Trustees is:
R B Snow Esq ISO
3 Eastcroft Road, West Ewell, Epsom, Surrey KT19 9TXTel: 020-8393-6620 Fax: 020-8393-8845