As many of you know, earlier this year, we had the support of a specialist research company to measure and evaluate the care that we offer. Jessie May wanted to know what we did well, but more importantly, how could we improve what we do for you.  

We asked for your help to find this out. Lots of you were generous enough to talk to the researchers at Apteligen, and since your feedback is now shaping the development of our service, we wanted to share the results with you. 

Much of what the researchers told us didn’t surprise us, but some findings supported our thoughts and ideas to enhance our offer to you.  

So here are the headlines. 

What we do well 

You gave us your feedback both formally and informally on an ongoing basis, but it was good to have your confirmation that we: 

  • Support your basic physiological needs of rest, sleep and physical and mental respite 
  • Help to build family resilience  
  • Understand and empathise with your needs 
  • Show you the importance of your own wellbeing while giving you the confidence to advocate for your child 
  • Help you to expose your child to new social experiences 

and that our work helps you to have a rich family life, spending precious time together and making lasting memories. 

We hear you…. 

We understand the impact we have on the childhood experiences of the brothers and sisters of the children we support.  You told us that they too had strong relationships with your Jessie May nurses whose visits often allowed them to have precious one-to-one time with you. 

We were also told that our work was particularly valuable to families where 

  • Their child doesn’t meet the threshold for other support 
  • There was a single parent, or one parent who often worked away from home 
  • There wasn’t a wider support network around 
  • The parents had difficulty in finding their way around the care system 
  • The family had reduced access to financial resources. 

It was great to hear how much you valued our family engagement offer! 

How we’re responding 

The research gave us a good indication of how and where we can do more.  

We know we need to develop a flexible and responsive offer to you, because needs can change very quickly for our families.  If this happens to you, we’d like you to call us and let us know what has changed and how we can help. We want to be there for you as much as possible. 

We’re also planning to extend our care hours and work. This includes an offer of teatime support visits and a Saturday opportunity for you to request a support visit if there is a need. 

We want to offer more than our existing holiday support visit and are currently planning how we can do this. 

Jessie May wants to work more closely with our partners to offer a more consistent end-of-life experience for children and families. 

There’ll be further details in the weeks and months to come. 

We always say that Jessie May was started by a family, for families, and is now shaped by families. Our research and our response to the results demonstrate our continuing commitment to that core value.  Thank you for helping us to stay true to our values.