Support
Children’s palliative care is “everyone’s business,” requiring a coordinated, multi-agency response across health, education, and social care to ensure families receive the right support at the right time.
A life-shortening condition profoundly impacts the entire family unit – parents, siblings, extended family, friends, and the wider community – making timely, appropriate support essential.
This section moves beyond clinical symptoms to address wider needs, using a Red/Amber/Green (RAG) rating system to quickly identify the urgency of a family’s needs and signpost them to relevant local or national resources – empowering families in self-management at every stage of their journey, including bereavement support from the point of recognition onwards.
The three domains of support
We have grouped potential needs under three areas – child and family needs, support networks and practical needs. In each area there are some examples of questions to help guide discussions and information to signpost families to support organisations or service delivery providers.
By using a Red/Amber/Green (RAG) rating system, you can identify the urgency of a family’s needs and signpost them to the correct level of support – whether that is universal resources, core services, or specialist clinical input.
You can download a PDF version of the checklist here
Notes for clinical use
This framework is designed to support a shared, multi-agency response. It does not imply that any single service or the voluntary sector is responsible for meeting all these needs; instead, it encourages health, social care, and education to work together to ensure families receive the right support at the right time.
