Providing paediatric palliative care: collaboration in practice

One of the main aims of palliative care is to enable clients to receive and access services in a way that maximizes their choice in relation to where, when and how they receive care. To achieve this end, it is essential that statutory and voluntary care agencies collaborate to provide an effective range of services. This article offers for consideration the experience of a children's hospice service and a paediatric oncology outreach service who collaborated to provide a service for children requiring paediatric and terminal care. It identifies a number of elements which are important for positive and effective collaboration.