Charity(ish) idea? Thoughts please

[Ideahelpplease]

We love very close to a big cancer hospital but not many hotels etc close by. I’ve been unfortunate enough to lose someone close who went to treatment there and know the budgets are stretched so much. The hospital has a big children’s dept and again sadly I know someone who has had to have treatment there. There are always issues with parking too.

Is when I lost my mum, it was so hard balancing childcare and just being everywhere at once.

We have a spare room and a nice garden. I was wondering if could look to set up a free service where children or siblings of patients could come for a few hours or even overnight. I guess similar to a childminder but just for the hospital?

Would that be able to work?

Sorry for typos, not had first coffee yet!

Any thoughts on of is good or bad idea... and how I could go about it (if good)

Unlikely to work. Hospital wouldn’t use you for various reasons ranging from insurance to H&S to you might be a psycho, so you’re have to advertise it meaning you might get a psycho come to you. Nice idea but unlikely to work.

That’s a shame, have been thinking a lot about this lately. Re: psycho, how is that different from anyone that gets a CRB/DBS check and helps out with children?

Insurance etc I would cover myself

I can't imagine the hospital would want to formalise the arrangement with you (as a PP mentioned, there are questions about insurance, cleanliness etc which they would not be able to control. Also, what would happen if you were to change your mind one day - they can't manage / have proper oversight of the arrangement).

The hospital would not be able to refer families of patients to you or endorse your arrangement.

There is probably nothing stopping you from making your own private arrangements, like advertising on Spare Room or local FB sites etc. But how would you ensure the room was being used by genuine cases? Would you want to see proof?!

People that have DBS and other checks eg for the care of children, if they look after them at their own home for example, are subject to inspections and monitoring. Think of childminders being periodically inspected and rated by Ofsted.

It's a lovely idea - I speak as someone who has spent countless hours pacing hospital corridors while my DH and my DF had cancer treatment - but the hospital would be unable to take up your offer in any official way for the reasons a PP has given.

If the hospital has a "Friends of ... Hospital" volunteer group, could you make contact with them and see if they know of any way that you could help and support?

Thanks all. Ah well sounds like a no go really. We are lucky to be quite well off financially so wouldn’t be looking at making a profit at all. Would happily be inspected/registered whatever it would take. I just know there is a big need for something like this. Treatment is long and hard and if have children/siblings, is often hard to know what to do with them if you don’t have existing childcare. I was “lucky” we lived so close to the hospital but others come from miles away.

Is there anyway I could set up as a charity and meet any obligations? Long and last shot before I pack away as a nice but unachieveable idea..

I think this is a very kind and lovely idea. Sadly in this day and age you would be hidebound with so much red tape I think it would be unworkable.