Rotherham Hospice named 'one of Britain’s best charities' after double national win

Rotherham Hospice has secured two major national awards after being named Medium Charity of the Year and taking home Frontline Team of the Year for its Hospice at Home team at the 2026 Third Sector Awards in London.

Chair of Trustees Dr Bruce Warner was also Highly Commended for Charity Chair of the Year, completing an afternoon of recognition for the independent South Yorkshire hospice.

The awards, which bring together charities and voluntary organisations from across the UK, were presented at the London Hilton on Park Lane at an event organisers describe as “the most prestigious awards in the not-for-profit sector, celebrating organisations and people changing lives across the country.”

Rotherham Hospice had reached the national finals in six categories before going on to secure two wins and one Highly Commended recognition.

The hospice, on Broom Road, was crowned Medium Charity of the Year from a national finalist field including Faith in Families, Calan DVS, Fulham Reach Boat Club and Money Ready.

The award recognised the year 2025/26 for the hospice, including its first ever overall Outstanding rating from the Care Quality Commission, “significant” growth in services and community support, “exceptional” patient and family feedback, and total income increasing to £9.56million.

During the year, Rotherham Hospice supported 360 inpatient admissions, delivered 12,320 Hospice at Home visits and recorded 38,102 Hospice at Home calls.

There was further celebration when the charity's Hospice at Home team was named Frontline Team of the Year.

The team won against a seven-team national final which included the Migrant Help Outreach Team, Debt Free Advisers led by Toynbee Hall, YSS’s #MORSE and MORSE YOUTH teams, Calan DVS’s Ar Trac team, Community360 and Drive Forward Foundation.

The Hospice at Home service provides specialist palliative and end-of-life care across Rotherham 24 hours a day, seven days a week, enabling people to be cared for in the place they call home.

During 2025/26, the team completed 12,320 home visits, managed 38,102 calls and provided more than 1,718 hours of telephone support. Its intervention helped avoid an estimated 1,363 hospital admissions and 1,428 GP appointments.

The win comes just two months after the team was Highly Commended in the National Hospice Team category at the Palliative Care & End of Life Care Awards, where Rotherham Hospice’s Inpatient Unit team was named the overall National Hospice Team Award winner.

Rotherham Hospice chief executive Mat Cottle-Shaw said: ““This is quite difficult to put into words. To be named Medium Charity of the Year nationally would have been extraordinary on its own.

“For our Hospice at Home team then to be named Frontline Team of the Year, and for Bruce to be Highly Commended as one of the country’s outstanding charity Chairs, made it a very special day for Rotherham Hospice.

“What makes these awards particularly meaningful is the company we were keeping. “We were sitting alongside national charities, organisations operating across whole regions and teams with resources and reach many times our own.

“In the Frontline Team category alone, we were competing with an organisation with almost £70 million of annual income and a London-wide debt advice network involving 18 charities.

“And then a team from our hospice in Rotherham was announced as the winner.

“That says something incredibly powerful about the quality of the people we have here.”