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We do whatever it takes to help change the future of disabled and autistic children by providing diagnosis, equipment, services and support to help them lead a full and active life.

OUR VISION

A world where all disabled children and their families have choice, opportunity, dignity and understanding.

OUR MISSION

Practical and emotional support through compassionate and efficient services.

OUR MOTTO

Whatever It Takes.

Our Aims

To change the futures of all disabled children providing access to the services, equipment, therapies and treatments they need.

To increase awareness and understanding of the needs of disabled children across the UK.

To enable disabled children to lead an active and independent life reaching their full potential.

To enable disabled children to lead ordinary lives.

John Caudwell – Founder & Chairman Emeritus

Founder and former Chief Executive of the Caudwell Group (including high street retailer Phones 4u), John is one of Britain’s most influential entrepreneurs and philanthropists.

John’s vision for a sustainable and efficient children’s charity has inspired thousands of supporters across the UK and he remains the charity’s largest single benefactor and most passionate supporter. By personally paying the charity’s annual administration and management overheads he enables the charity to offer complete transparency to its supporters, with 100% of direct donations going directly to the children and families who need it.

John is also a prolific fundraiser, regularly completing physical challenges and staging events to inspire and encourage the support of others.

Trudi Beswick – Chief Executive

A successful entrepreneur and former Director in the Caudwell Group, Trudi has been the driving force at Caudwell Children since its inception in 2000.

In her role as Chief Executive Trudi has orchestrated the charity’s continued growth, developing it from a small local charity to a national organisation and become an influential voice within the voluntary sector.

During the formative years of the charity Trudi would personally visit each individual family to assess the most effective way the charity could help; this insight into the unique challenges faced by families caring for a disabled child provided the basis for the charity’s core services and set a path for the charity’s future development.

Caudwell Children was founded in March 2000

As a leading disabled children’s charity, Caudwell Children was recognised as the second largest voluntary provider of specialist equipment in the UK and is widely regarded as one of the fastest growing children’s charities.

Caudwell Children has supported over

78,500

children and families

Caudwell Children has provided over

£91,875,000

worth of services

Caudwell Children has supported children with over

720

different medical conditions

Our History

Caudwell Children was founded in 2000 to improve the lives of disabled children

Started as the philanthropic vehicle for the successful Caudwell Communications Group (Phones 4 U, Dextra, 20:20 etc), for the first seven years of its existence Caudwell Children was run by a team of dedicated Group employees who worked in their spare time to deliver services for children across the North Midlands.

Trudi Beswick, a Director in the business, personally visited each family in the evenings and weekends to assess the most efficient way that the charity could help, and by garnering the support of the 8,000 Group employees as well as suppliers and customers, raised the funds needed to deliver services to a growing number of beneficiaries.

As the need for this unique kind of support grew, the charity organically expanded to the surrounding regions.

The support provided by the employees, suppliers and customers in those early years provided a vital platform from which to re-launch the charity once the business was sold in 2007 and it had to ‘stand on its own two feet’ for the first time.

about us timeline
OUR HISTORY

At this point, with the network of support associated with being a part of a multinational corporate now gone, the charity team expanded and increased the volume of community and corporate fundraising activity across the country.

Since then Caudwell Children has grown exponentially year-on-year, supporting on average an additional 2000 new children each year.

The charity is now widely recognised as one of the fastest growing children’s charities in the UK and the second largest independent providers of specialist equipment.

Following the successful sale of his family business, entrepreneur and philanthropist, John Caudwell, committed to a long-term partnership with the charity.

Frustrated with the lack of transparency from other charities, Mr Caudwell agreed to cover the annual management and administration costs of the charity through a single donation; therefore providing complete transparency to fellow benefactors.

Due to the unique association with the Caudwell Family, the charity can boast that 100% of direct donations are used to directly support disabled children.

In addition to this, the charity team work closely with suppliers to negotiate the best possible deals, ensuring each charitable £1 is doubled to provide at least £2 worth of support.

In recent years Caudwell Children has been re-defined as the ‘national charity with a local heart’, maintaining its roots within local communities and enjoying life-long relationships with many of its thousands of

We are supported by over 130 dedicated and hardworking volunteers both at the CICC and across the country. We also have a fantastic network of supporters who contribute in raising those much needed funds.

Throughout the charity’s history, it has been constantly reviewing service delivery to ensure the most efficient and effective level of support for families.

In 2012 the charity officially launched their seven Core Projects; devised after a decade of learning about the needs of families with disabled children and designed to fill the gap left by statutory services and other charities.

The Core Projects consist of Family Support Services, Equipment, Treatment, Therapy, Autism, and Sports Equipment.

As Caudwell Children continues its annual growth and plans for greater expansion and development unfold, the driving inspiration for its initial formation remain as important as it did in 2000.

Driven from the Chief Executive and the Board of Trustees, Caudwell Children remain passionate about making a real difference to the lives of individual disabled children.

Passionate, positive and practical, the charity team are motivated to improve the lives of the estimated 770,000 disabled children in the UK living, starting with the 400,000 living on or below the poverty line.

Still deemed a relatively young charity; Caudwell Children’s future is bright, but one thing is confirmed; that a country where disabled children and their families have nowhere to turn, is history.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspects health and adult social care services in England to make sure that they provide safe, high-quality care. If a service needs to improve, CQC will take action to make sure this happens. Find out more at www.cqc.org.uk.

Regulated By CQC

Our Team

Our Trustees

The Trustee’s role is voluntary and designed to support the Chief Executive by ensuring the charity is solvent, well-run, and delivering the charitable outcomes for the benefit of the public for which it has been set up. Our Board of Trustees have been carefully selected to represent a broad cross-section of the community and each applicant is then voted on to the board by the other members.