Children with complex care needs are at an increased risk of developing serious illness which could lead to sepsis. Many children receiving palliative care do not have a completed advance care plan identifying their wishes for ongoing care, which means they would require active intervention if they were to become acutely unwell. Sepsis is the immune system’s overreaction to an infection or injury and about 25,000 children are admitted to hospital with sepsis in the UK each year. Early recognition of the acutely unwell child and escalation of concerns from the community to an acute care setting is required to manage and treat a child who is deteriorating. This article describes a project of three phases which aimed to explore the assessment tools available to support recognition and screening of children who became acutely unwell while accessing community palliative care services. It also identifies the importance of working together in partnership with external organisations and acknowledges the achievements of all of the partners involved.

Nursing Children and Young People. doi: 10.7748/ncyp.2023.e1440

Peer review

This article has been subject to open peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

Gemma.Williams@staffs.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Williams GE (2023) Implementing partnership working to enhance the care of the acutely unwell child in children’s community palliative care services. Nursing Children and Young People. doi: 10.7748/ncyp.2023.e1440

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to say a special thank you to all of the external partners who supported this project for their time and expertise. It is important to celebrate the achievements that partnership working and collaboration bring, not only to the professionals involved but also to the children and their families who we care and advocate for. The UK Sepsis Trust, specifically Ron Daniels, chief executive, and Oliver Jones, lead support nurse, were essential to the development of the tools discussed in this article by offering advice about layout and design and sharing their enhanced knowledge about sepsis in children. Their invaluable support and partnership working enabled this achievement. Karl Emms, lead nurse for patient safety, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, supported partnership working by offering advice about tool layout, the practicalities of observation tool use and teaching requirements to ensure best practice was followed. Nick Gee, associate professor (accessibility and inclusivity), Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences at Birmingham City University, reviewed the education programme and provided feedback from a higher education perspective. He stated that the programme was ‘emotionally intelligent, and interactive throughout’ and he continues to offer support if required

Published online: 20 February 2023