Social Policy Review

Introduction

Social policies are important in any society since they provide a framework in which all social groups are guaranteed access to basic social amenities. These policies are useful in identifying and providing ways of bridging disparities between social groups by race, gender, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic status and migration status (Downing et al., 2016). The government though the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence introduced an important social policy in England, Northern Ireland and Wales in 2017. The policy known as ‘End of life care for infants, children and young people’ was meant to cover end of life care for infants, children and young people suffering from life limiting conditions. In this policy, young children refers to a person from the moment they are born until they reach 18 years. Additionally, the policy goes over and above to cover family members and carers as well. It is indeed an encompassing and inclusive document. For students seeking healthcare dissertation help, understanding such social policies is crucial for addressing healthcare disparities and improving end-of-life care for vulnerable populations.

In the context of social work, the policy requires the involvement of infants, children and young people with life limiting conditions and their parents or carers in the development of an advance care plan. In essence, an advance care plan is supposed to help people with life limiting conditions to plan for and receive care at the end of their lives in accordance with their wishes (Quinn et al, 2017). To influence the nature of their care, children together with their parents or care will be consulted by the relevant social workers to determine and improve the experience they wish to have in their remaining life. In the quality standard, the social workers attached to such young people with life limiting conditions are required to develop advance care plans which are not only appropriate to their circumstances but also undertake a continuous update of the same. Studies show that staff working for children’s hospices offering the above services have described their work as being emotionally intensive and multifaceted.

Impacts of the Policy

The new guidelines affects service providers like hospitals, hospices and GP practices in the manner in which they conduct their services in relation to children. In particular, they should have systems that take into account the needs of children and young people with life limiting conditions, and be able to develop advanced care plans in conjunction with their parents or carers. Notably, the guidelines places more emphasis on the involvement or parents and carers of children and further provides for the input of parents in cases involving pregnancies that require a plan before birth. Essentially, service providers will need to have adequate resources to facilitate the provision of the prescribed services to the required standard. Further, it may even require the service providers to invest in education of their staff so that they are well suited for the role, hence cost implications.

In the same vein, health and social care practitioners like GPs, community nurses and care workers have a duty to involve the concerned children and their parents. A named medical specialist must be assigned to a patient in the above category to coordinate care and provide information and support to them. For clinical commissioning groups, they are expected to commission services that support children and young people with life limiting conditions and their parents or carers in developing advance care plans. The clinical commissioning groups are also required to offer psychological support to children and young people with life limiting conditions.

According to the attendant guidelines, the care of the above category of children and young people is to be undertaken by a multidisciplinary team including specialist paediatric palliative care team. This requirement is good for the children and young people concerned because it guarantees that they will receive the best services achievable which translate to desirable quality of life they wish to have before their demise. Basically, this policy is premised on improving the standard of care provided to children and young people with life limiting conditions. These positive are achieved through initiatives like the provision of care at home for children and young people with limiting conditions. Another way in which the policy positively impacts on the user group is by implementing a quality standard on support for grief and loss for parents and carers. The rationale for the above requirement is that it enable the parents and carers to cope with the loss of their child. Usually, death of a loved one causes depression, anxiety and emotional distress that can negatively affect the well-being of parents or carers. Therefore, support and information after the death of a loved is a vital aspect of the policy which positively impacts the life of the family.

However, this policy has some negative implications especially with regard to financial implications. Currently, the UK government has cut its funding for social services to most local authorities. Therefore, inadequate financing coupled with a new policy that requires education of service providers to meet its objectives generates more questions than answers (Lund, Richardson and May, 2015). In addition to the above, there has been less focus on paediatric palliative care compared to adult end of life care, which is well established. It follows that current system is not well equipped to perfectly implement the policy as would have been under an appropriate one. It may result in provision of poor services due to understaffing and inadequate knowledge in the field of paediatric palliative care. It appears that the policy may not be effective without the cooperation of the parents or carers hence may hinder the achievements of its objectives regarding giving best life possible to children and young people with life limiting conditions.

Conclusion

In the end, the merits of advanced care planning for children outweigh its negative aspects or weaknesses. Therefore, the above policy presents an opportunity to venture into paediatric palliative care, an area that has been overlooked. As long as adequate funding can be maintained and the relevant practitioners trained, the policy will contribute a lot towards social care of young people.

References

Downing, J., Powell, R. A., Marston, J., Huwa, C., Chandra, L., Garchakova, A., & Harding, R. (2016). Children's palliative care in low-and middle-income countries. Archives of disease in childhood, 101(1), 85-90.

Lund, S., Richardson, A., & May, C. (2015). Barriers to advance care planning at the end of life: an explanatory systematic review of implementation studies. Plos one, 10(2), e0116629.

Quinn, C., McCarthy, S., Devins, M., O'Reilly, M., Twomey, M., & Ling, J. (2017). Prioritisation of future research topics in paediatric palliative care in Ireland: a Delphi study. International journal of palliative nursing, 23(2), 88-97.

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