Background Children’s hospices have a wide range of medical models to support clinical care of complex babies, children and young people. Children’s hospice doctors include General Practitioners, Paediatricians, Specialists and Consultants in Paediatric Palliative Medicine who may operate as the only doctor or one of only a few doctors for a service and may be new to hospice work or have extensive experience. The Association for Paediatric Palliative Medicine (APPM) sought a chair to bring together the hospice medical lead group and provided administrative support and a forum for escalation for the group, which commenced in 2023.

Aims The group brings together doctors working in children’s hospice care to discuss care provided, medical models, difficult cases, and provide a peer support group. We present the work of this group at Hospice UK to both encourage other hospices to join our network and reflect on the positive outcomes from this new group.

Methods We invited medical leads to join the group using the APPM membership contacts and set up a mailing list. We additionally asked this group for medical contacts in other hospices (where known) to invite them to join. The group now includes 19 hospice services (25 hospice sites) across the UK in the membership.

Results Outcomes to date include a suggested children’s hospice stock medications list, a matrix for defining hospices as focussed on clinical or community work (or both) and an agreed recommendation that all children’s hospices have access to a specialist Consultant in Paediatric Palliative Care. Other areas of discussion have included electronic records, educational support, data sharing, commissioning, and website development. Additional outcomes are increased collaboration and relationship building and a sense of community across the UK.

Conclusion Future directions include expanding the membership, developing further guidelines and standardisation and a regular shared education session.