Cancer: Young People

(asked on 6th February 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mental health support is available for children and young people who have been diagnosed with cancer.


Answered by
 Portrait
David Mowat
This question was answered on 9th February 2017

The independent Cancer Taskforce published its report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes: A strategy for England 2015-2020, in July 2015 representing the consensus views of the whole cancer community. The report noted that many young cancer patients suffer long-term physical and psychological consequences of their treatment in to adulthood.

Care should be built around what matters to the young person and their family and carers so we are working closely with cancer charities to ensure patients get the support they need during and after their treatment. In 2015 we announced everyone diagnosed with cancer in England will benefit from an individually tailored recovery package by 2020, a key recommendation in the Cancer Strategy. The recovery package, developed by Macmillan Cancer Support, will signpost people to rehabilitation and financial support services.

The Cancer Taskforce made three specific recommendations to improve the cancer care of children, teenagers and young adults through service redesign, improved data and tissue collection, and access to clinical trials.

The Children’s and Young Peoples Cancer Clinical Reference Group (CYP CRG) has begun to take forward the delivery of these recommendations. The CYP CRG is aiming to improve both clinical outcomes and the experience of care through a service review and has established a work-stream looking specifically at improving the experience of care. The workstream involves both CLIC Sargent and the Teenage Cancer Trust and will explore the best ways of building understanding of both the issues and the changes required for improvement. NHS England and the CYP CRG value the role and contribution of stakeholders and a number of engagement events and workshops are being planned. In addition to this, the CRG is exploring how to replicate the Cancer Patient Experience Survey approach for children and young people, so that experiences are shared and help to drive on-going improvement.

Reticulating Splines