Establishing a district palliative care team for children

The children's palliative care team aims to ensure a high standard of care and support for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. The team works through primary care teams and with hospital staff to ensure consistency and continuity of care and to maintain awareness of good practice and acts as a resource for staff from independent and voluntary agencies. The team consists of a consultant community paediatrician, clinical child psychologist, a dedicated social worker, sick children's trained district nurse, a senior member of staff from the children's ward, a health visitor, a school nurse, and a special school nurse. Other professionals are co-opted to the team as and when considered necessary, for example hospice consultant, pain specialist, dietician, paediatric pharmacist, chaplain. This paper describes how the children's palliative care team was set up and the first 2 years of its functioning.