Every year, Berkshire Healthcare Charity helps turn staff-led ideas into real improvements for patients, families, carers, and communities across Berkshire. Through their annual Better Together grant giving programme, their mission is to fund projects that make healthcare feel kinder, more personal, and easier to access.
This year, 17 projects have received funding, each inspired by the people who use and deliver healthcare services every day. Together, they show that sometimes the smallest changes can make the biggest difference.
Whether it's helping a child feel less anxious about a vaccination, creating a more welcoming therapy space, supporting people living with dementia, or providing new equipment that improves patient care, these projects are all focused on improving the experience of healthcare for local people.
What is Better Together?
Over the past three years, Berkshire Healthcare Charity has dedicated £40,000 each year to support staff-led ideas that enhance care across Berkshire.
The programme is based on the belief that the people closest to patients often know exactly what could make their experience better.
Through grants of between £500 and £5,000 that any member of staff can apply for, they've supported projects that improve wellbeing, reduce barriers to care, strengthen communities, and create environments where people feel more comfortable, respected and supported, helping improve experiences for thousands of people across the county.
This year, another 17 inspiring ideas will become reality. Read on to find out more about this year’s grant winners and their projects.
Helping children and young people feel safer and more confident
Several of this year's projects focus on supporting children and young people during appointments and healthcare visits.
Funding has been awarded to both the School Nursing Service and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for therapeutic and sensory resources that can help reduce anxiety and create more positive experiences during assessments, appointments, and interventions.
Building on the success of existing sensory vaccination clinics, Berkshire's Immunisation Service will further develop its sensory room at Wokingham Hospital with additional equipment, specialist seating, and calming resources. The improved environment will help children and young people who find healthcare settings overwhelming feel more comfortable when attending vaccination appointments.
The team has also secured funding for Collect and Protect, an innovative programme that will work with secondary school pupils to build awareness, confidence and understanding about vaccinations through interactive learning activities.
Creating more inclusive healthcare environments
Many funded projects focus on making healthcare environments feel calmer, more welcoming, and more accessible.
At Erlegh House, the Intensive Management of Personality Disorders and Clinical Therapies Team (IMPACTT) will create a dedicated sensory room to support people accessing services across multiple clinical teams. The space has been designed to reduce sensory overload and help people feel more comfortable engaging with support and treatment.
Meanwhile, Community Mental Health Services in Bracknell will transform several consulting rooms into sensory-friendly spaces, using thoughtful improvements such as calming colours, sensory resources, and more inclusive furnishings.
Talking Therapies teams across Berkshire will introduce sensory boxes into clinical rooms, helping ensure therapy spaces work better for neurodivergent people and others who may experience anxiety or sensory overwhelm.
The Integrated Pain and Spinal Service (IPASS) will also create a dedicated wellbeing and quiet space, offering a calm retreat for patients who may need privacy, reassurance, or time away from busy clinic environments.
Supporting people living with dementia
Several successful projects will improve support for people living with dementia, cognitive impairment, and age-related health conditions.
At Wokingham Inpatient Unit, funding will provide an interactive projector for reminiscence therapy and therapeutic activities. The equipment encourages engagement, stimulation, and meaningful interaction for people experiencing dementia, delirium, or cognitive difficulties.
The unit will also receive specialist rehabilitation resources that help people who are deaf, blind, or visually impaired take part more fully in therapy and recovery activities, promoting independence and reducing barriers to participation.
Elsewhere, a new Dementia Prevention, Awareness, and Community Outreach Hub will take information, advice and support directly into communities across Bracknell Forest, helping raise awareness and connect people with local services earlier.
Creating spaces that support recovery
Care is about more than treatment. The environment around us can play an important role in how we feel, recover, and connect with others.
Funding will help transform the Henry Tudor Ward day room into a more welcoming and therapeutic communal space where patients, relatives, and carers can spend time together comfortably.
At St Mark's Hospital, improvements to Jubilee Ward's courtyard will create a therapeutic outdoor space featuring accessible seating, sensory planting, and safe walking routes. The area will support rehabilitation, wellbeing, and meaningful time spent outdoors.
At Prospect Park Hospital, patients and staff will work alongside a local artist to create a large mural celebrating kindness, inclusion, care, and belonging. The artwork will form part of a wider initiative promoting respect for everyone.
Strengthening community connections
The Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team (CRHTT), a mental health urgent care service, has also secured funding to continue and expand its successful Coffee and Chat Community Wellbeing Programme.
Delivered through Safe Haven and Breathing Space, the programme offers welcoming opportunities for people experiencing mental health difficulties to connect with others through social activities, helping reduce loneliness, and build supportive relationships.
Investing in better care
Several projects focus on providing specialist equipment that can improve diagnosis, treatment and patient outcomes.
The Podiatry Service will receive advanced toe-pressure testing equipment that helps identify circulation problems earlier in people living with diabetes, arterial disease, and complex foot conditions.
Funding will also provide new pressure-monitoring technology for the Wound Management Service, helping clinicians deliver compression therapy more accurately and consistently for people with lower limb ulceration, improving comfort, and supporting healing.
Thank you
None of these projects would be possible without the incredible generosity of our supporters.
Every donation to Berkshire Healthcare Charity helps fund initiatives that go beyond what NHS budgets can provide, creating opportunities to make care feel kinder, more personal and more accessible.
To everyone who gives their time, fundraises, donates or supports our work, thank you. Together, you're helping turn great ideas into real improvements for local people across Berkshire.
Updates about these projects will be posted on Berkshire Healthcare Charity's LinkedIn page so you can see the difference your support makes.