King's College London

Children and their families living with life-limiting conditions often need care and support from health, social care, and education. One way that health services try and identify children needing the greatest input from professionals is to consider 'complexity' of care needs. For children who may have shortened lives, we do not know yet how to measure “complexity” that includes their health, social care and education needs.

The project consists of three activities. First, we will create a new research group including parents and professionals working in health, social care, education. This will enable us to work together into the future on this new topic.

Secondly, we will look at the existing research evidence to find out what works in terms of bringing together all providers to better integrate care for children with life-shortening conditions. We will also talk to children/young people, their parent and carers, and professionals to ask their thoughts on what 'complexity' might mean for these children, how to identify it, and how best to meet a child’s needs.

Lastly, we will bring together providers, researchers and families to agree together what 'complexity' means for these children, and how it might best be managed.

Our aim is to enable delivery of high-quality child-centred care through assessment of complexity and outcomes by health, social care and education providers care for children and young people with life-limiting conditions.