Social Value in Action: Helping Acorns Children’s Hospice Enhance Care Through Communication

Tony Gee launched a £10,000 Social Value Fund initiative in 2025, complementing its wider social value programme that includes ambassador activities, charity fundraising and volunteering. The fund provides financial support to colleague-nominated projects and organisations that promote community wellbeing, support local causes, enhance education and training opportunities, protect the environment, and deliver positive social impact.

One of the first applications to the Tony Gee Social Value Fund came from Josh Bullivant, Design Engineer based in Tony Gee’s Birmingham office. Josh’s partner works as a hospice nurse at Acorns Children’s Hospice, which provides expert care and support for babies, children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions.

Wanting to identify a project that would make a meaningful difference, Josh contacted Acorns’ fundraising team to ask how the Social Value Fund could help. Acorns recommended supporting Makaton training for its staff. Makaton is a communication programme that combines signs, symbols and speech and is particularly valuable for non-verbal children and young people who use the hospice’s services.
The hospice explained that improved communication can have a significant impact on both wellbeing and clinical care, helping staff better understand a child’s needs and symptoms. Funding was sought to enable staff to complete advanced training and become qualified trainers, allowing knowledge and skills to be shared more widely across the organisation.

Sharon, pictured, said: “Makaton is a really good communication tool for non-verbal or neurodiverse children. I remember one child who was signing ‘pain’ and ‘head’ and it became apparent that they had an ear infection. Without them being able to communicate using Makaton, that child would have been suffering, and we may never have known.”

Through Josh’s successful application, the Social Value Fund awarded Acorns Children’s Hospice £400 to support advanced Makaton training for members of its care team. The hospice said: “Sharon and Debbie completed the Level 4 Makaton training. They really enjoyed the course – it was hard work but really rewarding for both of them. They wanted to pass on their thanks to Tony Gee for providing them this opportunity. Sharon has received four certificates and as part of that she continues in her Sign of the Week to pass on the learning and communicate with the children.”
Following the training, Sharon and Debbie have been able to communicate more effectively with the children and young people they support. One particularly memorable example involved a non-verbal teenager who, through Makaton, was able to enjoy meaningful conversations that would previously have been impossible. The improvement in his wellbeing has been noticeable, and his family have been delighted by the positive difference the training has made.”
The impact of the training has extended beyond day-to-day care. Following the death of five-year-old Freddie*, his parents made a special request for Sharon to use Makaton to sign and translate a song played at his funeral. It was important to Freddie’s family that everyone present could understand the words of a song that meant so much to him. Thanks to the training funded through the Social Value Fund, Sharon was able to help make that moment even more meaningful for Freddie’s family and friends.”

This project is a great example of how relatively small Social Value Fund grants can make a lasting difference. By supporting specialised staff training, Josh’s application has helped improve communication, wellbeing and care for children and families at Acorns Children’s Hospice. It demonstrates the positive impact that can be achieved when colleagues use the fund to support causes that matter to them.

*Name changed for anonymity