RESEARCH conducted by the University of Stirling shows that recent government investment in children’s palliative care in England will have significant impact for children and families in Scotland.
ACT & Children’s Hospices UK have launched the Review and Analysis of 328 projects that were completed as part of the Department of Health’s £30 million funding programme for children’s palliative care in England.
The Review and Analysis was completed by Dr Liz Forbat and Sally Adams from the Cancer Care Research Centre at the University of Stirling.
The report illustrates the vast cross section of projects that were funded by the programme and highlights the impact they will have on children’s palliative care services across England. The projects will benefit children and young people of all ages, their family members and a wide range of professionals that work in children’s palliative care.
Key findings include:
- 123 projects produced resources which can be used to improve children’s palliative care in Scotland;
- 21 per cent of projects were national in scope, with the remaining local projects being spread relatively equally across England;
- of 328 projects , over half (57 per cent) were aimed at all life-limited children and families and, interestingly, a substantial proportion (42 per cent) was aimed at neonates/babies, indicating the scale of current development of neonatal palliative care;
- an encouraging 64 per cent of grant holders intend their project to be sustainable after the initial funding has been spent, indicating that the majority of projects will continue to have impact long into the future of children’s palliative care.
Dr Liz Forbat, lead author of the report, said: “We analysed hundreds of survey responses and spoke with dozens of project leads in preparing this report. We are confident that important and innovative developments in paediatric palliative care have been made through this funding, which can improve the lives of children and families using palliative care in Scotland.”
Lizzie Chambers, deputy CEO of ACT & Children’s Hospices UK, said: “It’s fantastic to see how much of a difference this funding will make to the children’s palliative care sector all across England.
“This report showcases how hard everyone worked to achieve so much through these projects, and to make the most of this excellent opportunity presented by the Department of Health. Well done to everyone involved in all the projects – it will be great to see in a few years what a genuine difference all this hard work has created.”
As part of this review and analysis project, ACT & Children’s Hospices UK launched www.30millionstars.org.uk a brand new searchable website dedicated to sharing the knowledge and learning that has come out of the funded projects.
Ends
Notes for editors
The ‘Review and Analysis of the Department of Health £30 Million Funding Programme for Children’s Palliative Care’ is available to download at: www.30millionstars.org.uk/report
The Review and Analysis report is based on survey responses from 95 per cent of the grant holding organisations and analyses the type, scope and impact of the funded projects.
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Contact: Patricia Hess
Phone: 01 786 466 687
Email: patricia.hess@stir.ac.uk
Website: http://www.stirling.ac.uk
