Blythe House Hospice is proud to announce that it has been awarded Derbyshire LGBT+ Accreditation, recognising its commitment to inclusivity and support for the LGBT+ community.
John Yates-Harold, Project Officer at Derbyshire LGBT+ and Assessor for the accreditation, praised the hospice for its dedication to fostering a welcoming and safe environment.
John said: ‘My warmest congratulations to the amazing team at Blythe House Hospice. This accreditation was a pleasure to award and is a testament to all the hard work the staff and volunteers have put in, and recognition of everything that cascades down through the whole team.’
The accreditation was awarded at the end of February, aligning with the conclusion of LGBT+ History Month.
Laura Savile, HR and Volunteer Manager at Blythe House Hospice, emphasised the importance of this milestone: ‘This achievement underscores Blythe House Hospice’s ongoing mission to provide truly inclusive care for patients, families, and our dedicated team. We are committed to ensuring that everyone who interacts with the hospice feels welcomed, supported, and valued.’
While Blythe House Hospice has always embraced inclusivity, the team recognised the importance of making this commitment more visible. Inspired by the Hospice UK paper “I Just Want to Be Me” and conversations with Derbyshire LGBT+ at Buxton Pride in 2022, the hospice began its formal accreditation journey in August 2023.
The process focused on six key standards: Welcoming, Consulting, Collecting, Analysing, Embedding, and Delivering. Over the past 18 months, the hospice has taken significant steps to meet these criteria, including installing LGBT+ window stickers, pronouns in email signatures, making stronger community ties, adopting inclusive application and referral forms, and an anonymised recruitment process.
John visited the hospice on Tuesday 11th March alongside colleague, Ian Robson, CEO of Derbyshire LGBT+ to officially hand over a commemorative plaque to Laura, as well as Shane O’Reilly, CEO at Blythe House Hospice.
The hospice remains dedicated to ensuring its services are welcoming and accessible to all, reinforcing its role as a truly inclusive care provider for the local community.
