Winstons Wish

Who we are

Winston’s Wish provides free digital bereavement information and support for children and young people across the UK who are grieving the death of someone important to them.

We’re the UK’s first childhood bereavement charity and have been leading the way in young people’s grief support since 1992. To this day we reach over 60,000 bereaved children and young people across the UK every year.

Our services are open to any bereaved young person up to the age of 25, regardless of who they are grieving or when they became bereaved. We also provide advice for adults supporting bereaved children and young people including parents, family members, friends, teachers, and other professionals.

We recognise that every child and young person grieves differently, and there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to bereavement support. We help by:

• Providing online access to useful information, resources and publications to help educate and inform about grief
• Instant online support from a Bereavement Support Worker. Our team offer real time support over the phone, on live chat or via email between the hours of 8am and 8pm, Monday to Friday. There’s no need to book an appointment and no wait lists.
• Facilitating peer support groups and one-to-one individual sessions

Our culture and values

Our Vision

A society in which every child and young person gets the help they need after anyone close to them dies.

Our Mission

To make sure no child or young person faces grief alone.

Our Values

• We put children and young people at the heart of everything we do
• We are positive and have fun
• We never stop learning
• We embrace differences
• We strive for better

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Equality, diversity, and inclusion:

Winston’s Wish is committed to achieving our vision of a society in which every child can get the help they need when someone close to them dies.

This belief is at the heart of everything we do at Winston’s Wish and our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy is essential to achieving this. We recognise that we need to do more to align our practices with our values, and where we are not living up to these standards, we will make changes to put things right.

For our service users

We want to deliver accessible and inclusive bereavement support services that are relevant and appropriate to all bereaved children, young people and families. To move us closer to achieving this we are continuing to regularly assess and adapt our services to make sure they are as accessible and relevant as possible.

For our staff, volunteers and trustees

We want to be the best place to come and work and an employer of skilled and talented staff and volunteers from a range of diverse backgrounds. Our belief is that our staff should represent and reflect the communities we work with and that diversity is an asset to be cherished, nurtured and grown.

We know we have a way to go on this. As an employer we are actively working to increase the diversity at all levels of our organisation and make Winston’s Wish an inclusive place to work. Creating an inclusive and supportive culture is not only the right thing to do, but also what is best for the children, young people and families we support.

This is only the beginning and we know we have a lot of work and learning to do. We have created an EDI Action Plan and have a group of dedicated staff focused on implementing that plan.

We will make certain that this commitment is not just words.