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The charity ‘WellChild’ relaunches its improved digital platform, In Your Area
Published
WellChild is a national charity supporting children and young people with complex medical needs. The charity has recently relaunched the 'In Your Area' digital platform, following consultation with Parent Carers and significant investment from the charity to improve usability and functionality, enabling at-risk families find vital support more easily.
In Your Area helps Parent Carers find relevant local services, facilities and support using a simple postcode search. The relaunched platform now offers a much greater depth of filtering options, allowing users to refine results based on a child’s specific and often highly individual accessibility requirements. The platform is a free, easy-to-use tool designed to save time and reduce stress when looking for the right support – it allows you to:
- search for local services and facilities using your postcode;
- filter results to meet your child's specific accessibility requirements; and
- discover activities, services, and support that are right for your family.
This means families can more easily identify services that are genuinely suitable for their needs, rather than relying on broad or generic listings. WellChild believes In Your Area to be the first digital resource of its kind in the UK to offer this level of tailored, accessibility-focused search for families of children with complex medical needs.
The relaunch also supports healthcare professionals, including nurses and allied health staff, who are frequently asked to signpost families to local services but may not always have access to up-to-date, area-specific information or the level of detail required to match families with suitable support.
Catherine Davies who runs WellChild’s Families Team said:
“Parents told us clearly what wasn’t working and what would make a real difference to their day-to-day lives. In Your Area has been reshaped around that feedback, with investment focused on creating a platform that allows families to find support that genuinely matches their child’s specific accessibility needs.”
One parent from WellChild’s ‘Family Tree’ online network who used the platform commented:
“For years I have struggled to find services that can help our family, this platform will stop my endless nights of scrolling the web trying to find the service I need or an activity my child can take part in.”
WellChild works closely with families, healthcare professionals and service providers across the UK, including its national network of WellChild Nurses, who support children with complex medical needs in both hospital and community settings.
The charity is encouraging organisations, facilities and service providers to ensure their information is listed on the platform and to use it as a way of demonstrating their commitment to accessibility and inclusive support.
The relaunched In Your Area platform is now live at: www.wellchild.org.uk/in-your-area
For more information, please visit the WellChild record on Gloucestershire's Local Offer, Support for Families with SEND .