The Children's Trust is the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury.
The Children's Trust is a UK registered charity, number 288018.
The Children's Trust runs a range of specialist care, education and therapy services for children and young people from across the UK, including the UK's largest rehabilitation centre for children with acquired brain injury (ABI) and is based at Tadworth Court,
Tadworth,
Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
within the
M25 motorway
The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major ring road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 th ...
.
The Children's Trust's celebrity Ambassadors are
David Walliams,
Richard Hammond
Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is an English journalist, television presenter, and author. He co-hosted the BBC Two motoring programme ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and James Ma ...
,
Phil Tufnell
Philip Clive Roderick Tufnell (born 29 April 1966) is an English former international cricketer and current television and radio personality.
A slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler, he played in 42 Test matches and 20 One Day Internationals ...
,
Joely Richardson,
Adam Hills
Adam Christopher Hills (born 10 July 1970) is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter. In Australia, he hosted the music quiz show '' Spicks and Specks'' from 2005 to 2011, and again in 2021 onwards, and the talk show '' Adam Hi ...
,
Jenni Falconer,
Amanda Burton,
Elaine Paige
Dame Elaine Jill Paige (born Elaine Jill Bickerstaff, 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Chipping Barnet, Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, m ...
,
Holly Valance,
Sophia Warner and
Nicholas Owen.
The Children's Trust launched an online support centre in 2012 for families of children affected by acquired brain injury. This website offers practical advice and information about a condition that is often misunderstood. There is also an online forum giving families the opportunity to share their stories and experiences.
In May 2022 a coroner criticised The Children's Trust over the death of a five-year-old boy its care. An inquest concluded Connor Wellsted died in 2017 following "entrapment by a loose cot bumper" at the Children's Trust facility in Tadworth, Surrey. Coroner Dr Karen Henderson also criticised the trust for what she said was a "lack of transparency" over the death. Two years later, on 14th October 2024 and following the death of another child, Mia Gauci-Lamport, the same coroner raised concerns in relation to the lack of appropriate monitoring of the child over-night, the medical care she received and senior management at the Trust. She highlighted that the management issues had been raised previously in her report into the death of Connor Wellsted.
In December 2024, England's Health Ombudsman, Karen Hilsenrath raised concerns publicly that the regulatory body,
The Care Quality Commission, had not properly investigated allegations of a 'cover-up' by The Children's Trust in the circumstances of the death of the child in 2017. She highlighted the coroner's statement in her report that The Trust “have not acknowledged there was a lack of transparency and openness into how
he boydied or that the trust did not properly investigate his death or inform the relevant statutory bodies of the circumstances of his death”. This has raised further concerns into the effectiveness of the regulator, the CQC who are responsible for regulating The Children's Trust and other care settings.
Services
The Children's Trust's services include:
* Residential rehabilitation for children with an
acquired brain injury
* Therapy-led support in the community for children with an acquired brain injury
*
Special education
Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, and SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual di ...
for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties, or PMLD, at The Children's Trust School, Tadworth
* Residential short breaks
* Transitional care for children who are technology dependent (e.g. require long-term ventilation or have a tracheostomy)
*
Palliative care
Palliative care (from Latin root "to cloak") is an interdisciplinary medical care-giving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating or reducing suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Man ...
* The Brain Injury Hub (www.braininjuryhub.co.uk) is an information website and discussion forum for parents of children with acquired brain injury, teachers, and health professionals.
Awards
Awards won by The Children's Trust include:
* Quality Improvement Award (Top Hospitals 2019)
* Institute of Fundraising Best use of data and insight in a small to medium charity (Insight in Fundraising Awards 2019)
* Highly Commended, 2019 BMA Patient Information Awards for Brain Injury Community Service animation and leaflet.
* Highly Commended, 2019 BMA Patient Information Awards, Concussion in children and young people booklet
* Winner 2018 BMA Patient Information Awards User Engagement Award
* Charity Shop of the Year (Charity Retail Awards)
History

From 1927 until 1983, Tadworth Court was the country branch of
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS F ...
. In 1984, the
Department of Health
A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their o ...
transferred management control to the newly created charity, The Children's Trust.
Tadworth Court was the
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
of the manor of
Tadworth which lay within the parish of
Banstead
Banstead is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It is south of Sutton, London, Sutton, south-west of Croydon, north of Reigate, south-east of Kingston-upon-Thames, and south of Central London.
On the North Dow ...
, by
Banstead Downs, a horse-racing racecourse in the 17th century. Banstead was well known as an airing place at this period, where Londoners sought fresh air, being 600 feet above sea level. The attractions of
Epsom Spa to the west prompted the first settlements other than isolated farmhouses on this part of the widest section of the
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...
stretching from Banstead village to
Walton-on-the-Hill to the south.
Tadworth Court on the south of the site is a
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
for architecture in the highest category as a country house of circa 1700, with "rustic
quoin
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...
s, stone dressings (renderings)..steep (and richly decorated)
pediment
Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...
....high panelling and rococo plasterwork...Boxed room with early C10 panelling,".
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...
described it as a ’splendid house’ and ’one of the most elegant in the whole country’. He was amazed that such a house so close to London was virtually unknown — no pictures of the house are known before the 20th century.
The owners of the house: The first owner, Leonard Wessel, a merchant, purchased the estate in 1694. He was Sheriff of the County in 1700 and a Member of Parliament in 1701. Whilst of a Dutch family, his great grandfather was born in England in 1557. Recent work to the house revealed that it does not incorporate an earlier building, but in common with all buildings of this period contains some reused beams due to the growing shortage of timber. 1694 is the likely construction date of the house and by 1698 the Banstead Court Rolls record that Wessel applied for leave 'to plant rows of trees on the Heath, fronting his dwelling house and leading towards the Warren.' One of these, a large poplar, survived until the 19th century.
Wessel died in 1708. The house appears on contemporary maps, and
Celia Fiennes
Celia Fiennes (7 June 1662 – 10 April 1741) was an English traveller and writer. She explored England on horseback at a time when travel for its own sake was unusual, especially for women.
Early life
Born at Newton Tony, Wiltshire,"June 7t ...
in 1712 describes it as one of ’several good houses in or about Epsham’, though by then in the possession of Sir
Thomas Scawen, Alderman of London, his brother-in-law.
References
External links
Official websiteThe Brain Injury HubJosh's Story (as seen on BBC's Children in Need)BBC TV news story about a girl who has received residential rehabilitation at The Children's Trust following a stroke aged sixArticle from The Guardian newspaper about the highly specialised education offered by St Margaret's School at The Children's TrustArticle from The Sunday Times Magazine about The Children's Trust's services
{{DEFAULTSORT:Children's Trust, Tadworth
Charities for disabled people based in the United Kingdom
Children's charities based in the United Kingdom
Grade I listed buildings in Surrey