Rainbow Gifts
Providing Gifts To Create Happiness In Times of Need
Amelia’s Rainbow supports local children living in Dorset who have been diagnosed serious and complex chronic conditions, life-limiting conditions and children receiving palliative care. Often families are focused on treatments and care so the time and money for a special treat or gift isn’t top of the priority list. That’s where we come in!
If there’s a gift or experience that will enhance the life of an eligible child, parents are welcome to apply for a Rainbow Gift.
Application Process
Once we have received your application a decision whether you are eligible will usually be made within a couple of weeks. If you are applying for a Rainbow Gift please note our Panel meet on the 1st of every month. For example if you send your application on the 4th of July this will be assessed on the 1st August Panel day. The Panel will assess your gift request and then we will contact you initially by phone to discuss whether the application has been successful and next steps.
If the application is urgent due to a time constraint or life limiting situation please let us immediately when you apply and we will fast track the application with a decision in days.
Referrers
To support your application, we require a confirmation signature and details of a NHS medical professional managing your child’s overall care. For example, this could be your Children’s Community Nurse, Paediatrician, NHS Physio, special school nurse, specialist nurse, NHS paediatric counsellor. We also take referral from Young Lives vs Cancer social workers. We ask for your child’s NHS number so when we contact your supporting professional to confirm we are supporting your application we use this to confidentially identify your child.
What we cannot provide:
We only provide Rainbow Gifts for the eligible child you apply for. The gift must have direct benefit to the child for their use or enjoyment. On a few occasions e.g. Christmas Toy Appeal or events we will offer opportunities for the whole family.
• Regrettably, we cannot provide grants for medical equipment or treatment or any equipment that comes under NHS provision.
• We cannot provide financial support for daily living costs e.g. bills, clothing or household maintenance or household appliances.
• We also cannot provide funds for respite care breaks.
• We do not provide Rainbow Gifts over £500.
• Once we have granted a Rainbow Gift, you can apply again but there is a waiting period of 24 months between gifts. If there is an opportunity, emergency or circumstance that falls outside the time frame, financial limits or criteria of the Rainbow Gifts please see Amelia’s Special Consideration Section. Referrers can also please get in touch to see how we can help.
• We do not send cash to spend on the gift, we prefer to purchase an item for home delivery or send vouchers.
• As we have a holiday home the charity does not routinely fund family holidays.
• Where a gift for a device or electronic equipment is requested, we are unable to provide insurance cover for accidental damage. You are advised to make enquiries about this as a broken item will not generally be replaced by the charity within a 4 year period. Where a device has been gifted we will not gift any other device within 4 years. Please note we do not gift mobile phones.
Where applying for an ‘iPad’ you may be offered a reconditioned device or offered a tablet that we have in stock. We can discuss this at time of agreement depending on the reason the device is needed.
• Unfortunately, as a small charity there are some conditions which we do not currently cover as it doesn’t fully meet our current criteria. Our criteria is based on the medical definition of serious, life limiting chronic or palliative. Your referrer should only sign if your child meets these medical definitions. If we can’t help, please talk to your health professional about charities who will support children with these conditions.
