Nurses must be more confident in assessing Gillick competence

The recent measles outbreak in south west Wales saw mass immunisation of children who had not received both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The most difficult target group to immunise proved to be children in the 14-17 year age group, due in primarily to the reliance on parental consent for the immunisation instead of the child's consent under the rule in Gillick. For future mass immunisation programmes with this age group to be successful, nurses must be more confident in assessing Gillick competence and allow the child to consent to the vaccination. In this article the author considers the requirements for Gillick competence and highlights the factors nurses must consider when determining whether a child is competent to give consent to treatment.