Family Fund supports families living across the UK who are who are raising a disabled or seriously ill child or young person up to the age of 17. Our support is focused on those on low incomes with a child/children who have a high level of additional support needs.

At Family Fund, we believe that all families raising disabled or seriously ill children and young people should have the same choices, quality of life, opportunities and aspirations as other families.

Children Today helps provide specialised equipment for children and young people with disabilities throughout the UK. The aim is to ensure that every disabled child and young person fulfils their potential and leads an active childhood.

We believe the provision of specialised equipment has a direct and immediate impact on a child’s quality of life and independence, and is vital in helping them to overcome obstacles and achieve their potential. Equipment can include wheelchairs, walking frames, tricycles and other mobility aids along with multi-sensory equipment.

The Access Fund is a grant to help disabled children and young people to participate in activities in their local community.  This can be any daytime, evening or weekend activity that the child or young person enjoys whilst their parent/carer has a break from caring.   The Access Fund seeks to support children and young people to take part in inclusive activities alongside their non- disabled peers.

Max Card is issued by North East Local Authority specialist teams to children in care, and children and young people with additional needs.

Max Card offers these children and their families or carers free or discounted entry into many museums, galleries and heritage attractions across the North East.

Just show your Max Card at the entrance and you will get in for free or at the Max Card discounted rate – see the venues page for a full list of venues offering discounts.

Rays of Sunshine Children's Charity exists to grant the wishes of children who are living with serious or life-threatening illnesses between the ages of 3-18 who live in the United Kingdom.

Our dedicated wish team responds to all wish applications within two weeks. We do not operate a waiting list, but give every wish our immediate attention.

With your help they and their families can experience the joy and excitement of doing something they've only ever dreamt of before.

Help us turn wishes into happy memories.

Disability North is a registered charity (no. 514733) promoting inclusion, independence and choice for disabled people and their families by providing information, advice and support on any aspect of disability. Services are also provided for students or professionals working in the statutory, voluntary and the public sector.

Today, 10 children and young people in the UK will hear the shocking news that they have cancer.

Treatment normally starts immediately, is often given many miles from home and can last for up to three years. Being diagnosed with cancer is a frightening experience and the emotional, practical and financial implications of treatment are intensely challenging for the whole family.

Our children’s acute physiotherapy team provide a comprehensive range of services for babies, children and young people with musculoskeletal, neurological or cardio-respiratory conditions.

The services we deliver range from treatments for common disorders, to more specialist care for complex problems, such as hydrotherapy, non-invasive ventilation and Ponsetti casting for congenital foot deformities.

Our children’s community therapy services team provide highly specialised physiotherapy and occupational therapy to children who have long-term disabilities and complex health needs.

We work to support the child and their family to reach their greatest physical potential. This includes giving support to schools, respite agencies, and other local community services that children and their families may use.

We provide a specialist regional service to children and their families covering a large geographical area – as far north as the Scottish Borders, south to the North Yorkshire across to the west coast.

Based at the Great North Children’s Hospital, we look after children from new-born through to 18 years old who require ventilatory support.

The majority of our patients that require assistance are managed with mask ventilation overnight however we also support children with tracheostomy who are dependent on ventilation 24 hours a day. 

The children's speech and language therapy service provides expert guidance and support around children’s speech, language and communication.

Our commitment is to help children communicate to the best of their ability.

We aim to minimise any negative impact of speech, language or communication difficulties for the child and their family, as well as on their education and social lives.

Our geographical boundary is Newcastle and we also treat children through regional services.

 We can provide specialist support for:

We offer direct and indirect speech and language therapy input for young people in further education, who have speech and language therapy agreed in their educational health care plan (EHCP).

This may include students who have autism, learning difficulties or hearing impairment as well as a wide range of speech, language and communication difficulties.

The Community Eating Disorder Service (CEDS) provides community support and hospital inreach. This specialist eating disorder service supports young people and their families in the community to manage their condition and prevent hospital admission. They provide family based therapy in a range of settings as well as specialist clinical assessment and inreach to paediatric and acute mental health settings.

The Community Multiple Sclerosis Team, based at Walkergate Park in Newcastle,  is a multidisciplinary team working with people, and their families/carers, who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The service provides therapy, information, advice and continued support from diagnosis to end of life.

The team involved in your care could include:

• Physiotherapists
• Rehabilitation Assistants
• Occupational Therapists
• Neuro Rehabilitation Nurse Specialist

At Advantage Healthcare, we employ motivated and dedicated people who have 24-hour back-up through local hubs and our out-of-hours on-call team. We provide continuity of care to our patients and are diligent in matching our staff with clients to ensure long-lasting placements. All our staff are supervised and given ongoing training.

Lamesley is an acute admission ward based at the Hadrian Clinic, Campus for Ageing and Vitality in Newcastle upon Tyne. Lamesley has 18 beds providing assessment and treatment by a multi disciplinary team. They will support you to develop new skills to manage your mental health. During your stay you will be offered the following treatments and therapies:
• Occupational therapy – helps with individual or group activities and daily living skills
• Physiotherapy – help with mobility or movement problems or by providing access to gym facilities

A child who has been in the care of their local authority for more than 24 hours is known as a looked after child. Looked after children are also often referred to as children in care. The majority of looked after children are cared for by foster carers or family members other than their parents. A small number of these children are in residential homes.

Children who enter the care system often have more health needs than other children, which means that they often require additional health support.

14 beds providing a behaviourally managed environment in which people with cognitive, emotional or behavioural outcome of an acquired brain injury can have access to rehabilitation.

How to get Referred:
Via Consultant

16 beds (with fully equipped interim flat) providing highly specialised and integrated multi disciplinary rehabilitation for adults following an acquired brain injury or other neurological disease/illness (patients must be medically stable).

How to get Referred
Via single point of access, Donna Lowther.

The Mental Health and Deafness Service, based at Walkergate Park in Newcastle upon Tyne,  is for deaf and deafblind people aged 18 years or older who mainly use British Sign Language to communicate and who have mental health problems. We work with the Community Treatment Team (CTT) in your local area.

How  can I get referred?

You can be referred by a Specialist Mental Health Service.

What we do

The Northern Region Gender Dysphoria Service is a service for people who experience persistent confusion and/or discomfort as a result of a discrepancy between their assigned sex and their gender identity. This includes people who want to change physical aspects of their gender as well as those who do not.

The Perinatal Community Mental Health Team provides a multidisciplinary service for women with mental health problems relating to pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood living in Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside, Northumberland, Sunderland and South Tyneside.

We care for women with a range of moderate to severe common mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and severe mental health disorders such as bi-polar, psychosis and schizophrenia.

The Regional Affective Disorders Service (RADS) is one of a limited number of specialist/tertiary level affective disorder services in the UK providing both out-patient and in-patient care for patients with difficult to treat mood disorders.

The Regional Affective Disorders Service is based in Newcastle upon Tyne which provides care for patients living in the North East of England, over the age of 18, with complex and/or treatment refractory affective disorders and other treatment refractory conditions complicated by an affective component.

The Regional Affective Disorders Service (RADS) is one of a limited number of specialist/tertiary level affective disorder services in the UK providing both out-patient and in-patient care for patients with difficult to treat mood disorders.

The Regional Affective Disorders Service is based in Newcastle upon Tyne which provides care for patients living in the North East of England, over the age of 18, with complex and/or treatment refractory affective disorders and other treatment refractory conditions complicated by an affective component.

The Regional Communication Aid Service is based at Walkergate Park and is a specialist Electronic Assistive Technology Service.  Our service aims to improve the independence of people of all ages who experience severe communication difficulties through the provision of specialised services for Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) Aids.  We support local teams in working with individuals to understand their AAC needs; and in providing specialised communication aids.