SERVICES at a children’s hospice will be moved for up to four months while refurbishments take place.

Respite and residential care at Haven House Children’s Hospice in Woodford Green will move to The Holly in Buckhurst Hill for 12 to 16 weeks while improvements take place next year.

Respite care involves short stays for service users usually over a day or night.

A spokesman for Haven House said: “It won’t cause disruption to respite care users because the actual service continues and we’ve been communicating with families over an extensive period of time. It’s business as usual.”

Services including physiotherapy, yoga and music therapy will continue to be provided at Haven House’s Holistic Care Centre.

Works to improve Haven House Children’s Hospice in Woodford Green will begin this January following a cash injection from generous donors.

Users will benefit from a brighter and bigger lift to the bedrooms, redesigned facilities on the first floor and a new kitchen/café area will be added downstairs for families.

Mike Palfreman, chief executive of Haven House said: “We are very grateful to our corporate supporters who have generously funded these essential refurbishments and to The Holly for offering use of their premises for the period of our building work.

“Having access to such wonderful premises means we and the children and families we support can be confident care will be able to continue to our normal excellent standards, without disruption of our services.

“We are very much looking forward to working alongside The Holly’s excellent staff and to building an even stronger partnership long into the future.”

Donors include DM Thomas Foundation for Young People, Matchroom Foundation, M & G Foundation, Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust, Story of Christmas and the Wolfson Foundation.

Works are being done to mark the hospice’s 15th anniversary.