Tom’s Trust has invited Principal Treatment Centres* (PTCs) in the UK to apply for Tom’s Trust funding to establish a Tom’s Trust clinical psychology service for children with brain tumours and their families at their centre.
We currently fund psychology services within three centres in the UK – Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle and at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. Our fourth service is due to open in Autumn 2024.
Centres of Excellence
Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust where we run Tom’s Trust services have recently been awarded the coveted Centre of Excellence status from The Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission and we know that Tom’s Trust funding and work has contributed to them being designated a centre of excellence.
Our work
To date Tom’s Trust has provided psychological support to over 1600 children and 4800 family members through our services across the UK (as of May 2024). As well as funding clinical psychologists within PTCs: –
- We provide a fund to help PTCs and POSCUs** who belong to the neuro oncology special interest group – this is for small bursaries to provide equipment, costs to cover conference attendance, as well as providing funding for research and training etc
- We are developing an information stream – this started with the launch of the Tom’s Trust sibling toolkit
- We have a family liaison coordinator who is building up social contact/events for families, runs the Young Ambassador scheme and will be in close contact with our services to support that work.
Inviting applications for new services
Tom’s Trust is growing our income to meet our ambitious strategy. We are now seeking applications for Tom’s Trust funding from other PTCs that treat children and young people with brain tumours and other CNS tumours. These applications will be assessed by an expert panel, with the most promising taken forward to further discussion.
We will choose up to three possible centres for funding, putting them in priority order to fund over the next five years. The first can be funded from autumn 2025. However, as part of our Tom’s Trust clinical services network plans, we will begin working with the other centres to develop plans towards funding.
Find out more
If you work at a Principal Treatment Centre and would like some more information on this, please download our application information pack. Applications are invited by 17 October 2024. Similarly, if you are in a family facing a child’s brain tumour diagnosis and are being cared for in a centre where we are not currently in place, please do alert your medical team to this opportunity.
*A Principal Treatment Centre (PTC) is a hospital that has been recognised as a specialist expert in children and young peoples cancer.
** A Paediatric Oncology Shared Care Unit (POSCU) is a hospital nearer to the child’s home who will support the PTC with blood tests, transfusions and medicine.
