Abstract

In 2005, when the International Children's Palliative Care Network was first constituted, there was limited awareness of the status of palliative care for children internationally and what services there were tended to be isolated and unconnected. The ICPCN set out to tug on all the international threads to find what services for children there were at the end of them. Six years on, through focused advocacy, networking, information sharing and research, the ICPCN has been able to build a clearer picture of the provision of palliative care for children worldwide as well as what training and education is available in the field. The ICPCN has also become a trusted conduit for information, a central networking point and, through its growing membership, has built up a reservoir of knowledge and experience upon which the rest of the world is free to draw. The ICPCN has surveyed what training is available worldwide and in response has piloted an eLearning project in order to provide much needed training in the field that is free and accessible worldwide. The ICPCN International and multi-professional Scientific Committee is making its mark by tackling issues related to children's palliative care, a much under researched field. While there is still much work to be done, the need for children's palliative care is becoming recognised as a reality worldwide and the ICPCN will seize every opportunity possible to provide relevant training and advocate for its inclusion in the healthcare policies of every country. It is only by networking and reaching out to help and support one another that we will finally reach and move beyond a tipping point. The ICPCN is committed to attaining this goal.