12/02/2026
It is with deep sadness that we share that, due to an extremely challenging funding climate, the trustees of Teapot Trust have made the difficult decision to ask OSCR, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, to dissolve the charity.
Over 16 years, Teapot Trust has built art therapy expertise, supporting 16,000+ children and young people living with chronic illness and their families. We have worked with hospitals, community and charity partners across the UK as well as online.
Our role has been an impactful one in children’s journeys, providing creative space where they could explore, express, and make sense of their experiences of illness and treatment. We helped them find their voice so that they no longer felt defined by illness.
With our partners, we responded to real needs, pioneering innovative approaches to art therapy, helping children overcome needle phobia and cope with complex treatment regimes.
Through our Young Voices programme, young people shaped spaces for creativity, connection, and confidence-building, ensuring their perspectives informed both practice and service development.
As we move forward, our focus is on concluding our current art therapy commitments with care, responsibility, and respect for those involved.
Collaboration has always been central to Teapot Trust’s way of working. We have led and contributed to research that will continue to inform practice beyond the life of the charity. Our free-to-access art therapy resources, created by Teapot Trust’s art therapists and staff, and informed by lived experience, are used by families worldwide and will remain available as part of this ongoing legacy. These resources are on Teapot Trust’s website at www.teapot-trust.org which will remain ‘live’ until December 2026, after which time the website will be archived.
Teapot Trust’s ‘Elsewhere’ Garden at Glasgow Children’s Hospital – a permanent public space created in partnership with many contributors and recognised with a gold award at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2023 – stands as a lasting contribution to children’s health and wellbeing.
While we know many stories of the children, young people and families we worked alongside, we also recognise that many impacts are unseen and continue quietly over time. Being part of these wider stories is something we hold with humility and gratitude.
We would like to thank everyone who has been part of Teapot Trust’s journey over the past 16 years including children and families, staff, art therapists, trustees, patrons, Young Voices members, clinicians, nurses, hospital and community partners, volunteers, donors and funders, our founders John and Laura Young, and all who have supported the charity’s work. Thank you.
