Our impact
Our impact reaches far beyond our hospice in Loughborough. We provide specialist palliative and end-of-life care across the East Midlands, supporting families at home, in hospital, at our hospice and in local communities.
Our impact
Every day, Rainbows makes a difference to babies, children and young people with life-shortening and life-threatening conditions, and to the families who love and care for them.
Our impact reaches far beyond our hospice in Loughborough. We provide specialist palliative and end-of-life care across the East Midlands, supporting families at home, in hospital, at our hospice and in local communities.
And by working alongside health and care professionals, sharing our expertise and contributing to research and education, we’re helping to improve children’s palliative care for families beyond those we support directly.
Outstanding care for families
In 2025, Rainbows became the first children’s hospice in England to be rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission across all five areas of inspection – Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led.
The rating recognised not only the quality of our specialist care, but our whole-family approach and a culture where our teams continue to learn, improve and respond to what families need.
Reaching families wherever they are
Rainbows is no longer defined by a single location, but as a service that spans multiple settings and counties, supporting significantly more families than ever before.
We’ve developed specialist nursing roles in hospitals and communities, Hospice at Home and community hubs, helping bring Rainbows’ expertise closer to families across the East Midlands.
Our nurse-led model combines advanced clinical expertise with compassionate care, working alongside NHS and other health and care partners to ensure families can access specialist support in the setting that’s right for them.
Supporting the whole family
A child’s diagnosis affects everyone who loves and cares for them, so our impact is about much more than clinical care.
Alongside specialist palliative care, families can access emotional and practical support, therapies, play, sibling and youth support, cultural and spiritual support and help through transition and bereavement.
Together, these services help children live as fully and comfortably as possible and give families opportunities to spend precious time together, make memories and feel supported through some of the most difficult moments of their lives.
Improving care beyond Rainbows
Our expertise is helping shape children’s palliative care beyond the families we support directly.
We’re working with NHS services, universities, hospices and other partners on research, education and improvements to clinical practice. Our teams contribute to regional and national work, helping develop knowledge and improve the consistency and quality of care available to babies, children and young people with palliative care needs.
Our ambition is to become a recognised Centre of Excellence for research and education in children’s palliative care, influencing and improving practice locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Our latest impact
Our 2025/26 Impact Report will be published soon on this page, sharing the difference Rainbows is making across the East Midlands, and how we’re helping to shape the future of children’s palliative care nationally.