We have launched our new guide to commissioning, planning and delivering children’s palliative care based around the unique needs of the child and family. Now in its fourth edition, A Guide to Children’s Palliative Care, has played a pivotal role in driving the development of palliative care for babies, children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions since it was first published in 1997.
It aims to enhance understanding of the specific needs of these children and families and to encourage an integrated approach to delivering sustainable high-quality children’s palliative care services based on evidence and delivered by an appropriately trained, experienced and integrated workforce. A Guide to Children’s Palliative Care is free to download.
A Guide to Children’s Palliative Care is recognised as the cornerstone of good palliative care for children in the UK and internationally. The new edition is endorsed by NICE, The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Heath, the International Children’s Palliative Care Network and the European Association for Palliative Care and aligns with the NICE Guideline on End of Life Care for Children. It provides a 360-degree insight into children’s palliative care: what it is, its principles, purpose and importance to the UK’s 49,000 seriously ill babies, children and young people.
It is very timely to be launching this new edition of our seminal Guide to Children’s Palliative Care. In the context of a growing number of children with increasingly complex care needs, services are struggling to keep pace as the nursing workforce is dwindling and funding is being stretched more and more thinly. I hope that the Guide will help to facilitate conversations and understanding of what children’s palliative care is all about and how it is indispensable for children for whom cure is not possible or uncertain. This new edition aims to cement children’s palliative care as a core service, not just the domain of specialists. Good support and care for these children and their families should be a fundamental right and I hope the Guide will help to open up conversations about the value and life-affirming nature of children’s palliative care.
Lizzie Chambers, author of the guide and Director of Development and Research for Together for Short Lives
Professor Julia Downing, Chief Executive, International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) added:
“We are delighted to see the launch of the fourth edition of A Guide to Children’s Palliative Care. This guide has been used extensively throughout the world by individuals, organisations and governments striving to develop palliative care services for babies, children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families. Whilst linking in with UK policy, structures and resources, the general principles can be applied to different contexts and countries and have provided an important framework. ICPCN are delighted to be able to endorse this fourth edition and look forward to working with Together for Short Lives and the RCPCH on developing an international edition in the future.”
The Guide is written from the standpoint that children’s palliative care is no longer ‘in development’ but is now a medically recognised specialty and focuses on making the care of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions everybody’s business. It seeks to cement the positive advances in children’s palliative care and sets out a vision for the future sustainable development of children’s palliative care. It includes a new and enhanced section on research, acknowledging the need to expand the evidence base for children’s palliative care.
A Guide to Children’s Palliative Care is written by Lizzie Chambers, Director of Development and Research for Together for Short Lives, edited by Dr Ann Goldman and draws on the experience and knowledge of leading children’s palliative care researchers, clinicians and practitioners. It’s an essential tool for all those with an interest in planning, commissioning and delivering services and care for babies, children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families.
