Plans for Grace’s Place site after closure

The former Grace's Place Children's Hospice

Plans are being made for the future of the former Grace’s Place children’s hospice in Radcliffe after the service closed in August 2019.

The Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, which owns the Dumers Lane premises, say they are working with the local Clinical Commissioning Group to make plans for the future.

A Pennine Care Foundation Trust spokesperson said: “We’re very saddened that the Grace’s Place hospice in Bury has been forced to close because of funding issues.

“We had been renting the building that houses Grace’s Place to the Forget Me Not charity since July 2017 for a peppercorn rent. Now that they no longer need it we are keen to ensure it’s put to good use and we’re working with the local CCG to make plans for the future which we hope to share by the end of the year.”

Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, a pioneering charity based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, opened the doors of Grace’s Place to children across Bury, Oldham and Rochdale earlier this year.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/125315/childrens-hospice-graces-place-opens

Grace’s Place closed just months after opening, due to rising costs and a lack of funding.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/129670/grace's-place-children's-hospice-to-close-at-end-of-august

Originally planned to open in the autumn of 2014, the former Bury Hospice site was refurbished to serve as a children’s hospice.

The majority of the cost of redeveloping the building was met by a £507,000 grant from the Department of Health.

Plans for the hospice to open faltered after the charity fell into financial difficulty due to the cost of the building works, before the building company donated the outstanding debt.