Are you a parent or family member providing care for a child with a life-threatening or life-limiting condition? Do you deliver or support children’s palliative care services for the under 25s? Do you want to learn new skills to help support children and young people – but can’t afford the training?

National children’s palliative care charity ACT (Association for Children’s Palliative Care) has launched (14 February 2008) a new training grants programme to help families, carers and professionals working in the field to help enhance their skills, knowledge and competencies.

The ACT Children’s Palliative Care Training Grant Programme, funded by The True Colours Trust, aims to help support best practice and specialist knowledge in caring for children with life-limiting conditions by providing small one-off grants of up to £250 to individuals and agencies who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access specialist training.

It’s hoped that the ACT Children’s Palliative Care Training Grant Programme will help parents, carers and professionals to attend training, events or conferences which will provide them with valuable information or support to enhance their skills and confidence in caring for a life-limited child. Equally the scheme is designed to address a skills shortage in this field by supporting professionals to share best practice and to hone their skills.

The ACT Children’s Palliative Care Training Grants Programme is now open.  You can download an application form at the ACT website http://www.act.org.uk/dmdocuments/training_grants_application.pdf

or call 0117 922 1556 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Training Grant applications will be assessed by a panel of children’s palliative care specialists on a quarterly basis (April 2008, July 2008, October 2008, and January 2009). The panel will include representatives from both ACT and ACH (Association of Children’s Hospices). The grants will pay for a maximum of £250 towards an individual’s cost of attending a training course, conference or seminar, plus up to £50 towards travel costs.

To qualify for a training grant individuals must be resident in the UK and either:

·         A parent or close family member of a child with a life-limiting, life-threatening condition, or disability/health condition which will shorten their life;

·         An individual professional supporting life-limited or life-threatened children;

·         Work for an organisation providing children’s palliative care.
 

Lizzie Chambers, ACT Chief Executive said: “ACT wants to ensure that all life-limited children and their families get the highest standards of care and support.  One of the ways we can do this is by supporting parents, carers and professionals to maintain or improve their level of knowledge and skills. 

Many professionals tell us that they just can’t get the funding for the training and information they need – even though there are many courses and events that would help them. We hope that our scheme will go someway to tackle the real skills shortage within the field of children’s palliative care.

We also want to make a real difference to children and families, and enable parents and carers to receive training in areas that will improve their ability to cope with the daily demands of caring for a child with palliative care needs. We don’t have a huge pot of money – but what we do have will be awarded to those individuals who need it most.”

For more information about the ACT Children’s Palliative Care Training Grant Programme contact ACT: 0117 922 1556, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.act.org.uk