What is Paediatric Palliative Care?

Paediatric Palliative Care is special support for babies, children, and young people who are living with conditions that are limiting or threatening their life.

It’s about helping your child live as fully and comfortably as possible, while providing emotional, social, and practical support to your whole family.

• It’s not just about the end of life. This care can begin from the moment your child is diagnosed with a life-limiting condition. It often works alongside any active treatment or therapy your child is receiving.
• Our goal is quality of life. We focus on promoting the best possible quality of life for your child and family, caring for physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs.
• It's a Team Effort. Care is provided by a team of people, which may include hospital specialists, community nurses, GPs, therapists, psychologists, hospices, and specialist palliative care professionals.

Our Work

In South Yorkshire Palliative Care Team is provided by a multidisciplinary group of professionals focused on putting your child and family's wishes at the centre of all care.

Our work includes:

• Symptom management: Helping to control pain and other difficult symptoms.
• Reducing hospital admissions: Offering at-home assessment and treatment where possible to keep your child comfortable at home.
• Advance care planning: Supporting your family to make informed decisions about care that reflects your child's wishes and priorities.
• Working closely with Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice and other services to provide coordinated care.
• Coordinating multi-disciplinary teams across specialities to ensure seamless support.
• End-of-life care and bereavement support for families.
• Home visits with a palliative care consultant.

Planning for the Future

To make sure your child’s care reflects your family's wishes, we use a few key planning tools:

• Advance Care Planning (ACP): This is a child- and family-led process that helps everyone understand what matters most to your child and your family. It focuses on your values, wishes, and priorities to ensure care supports living life to its fullest.
• Parallel Planning: This means we hope for the best while also preparing for different outcomes. It allows treatment and palliative care to happen side-by-side.
• ReSPECT (Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment): This creates a personalised plan for emergency care. It documents what types of care or interventions your child and family would want - or might not want- in an emergency.