Queensland Child and Youth Clinical Network – influencing children’s health policy through collaboration

Introduction: The Queensland Child and Youth Clinical Network (QCYCN) was established in 2009 to drive service improvements in the care of children and young people

Practice change: Best practice determined the QCYCN as the peak body of expertise to serve as an independent point of reference for clinicians, health services and governments. The QCYCN embraces a collaborative approach to lead the development of evidence based optimisation reform.

Aim: Engage, integrate and empower paediatric clinicians to innovate for service improvement and embed integrated evidence based practice modelswhich improve the health of children, young people and their families

Targeted stakeholders: paediatric clinicians; policy makers; government and non-government agencies; consumers; universities

Timeline: Established subnetworks to tackle key priorities of child development, child health, obesity, paediatric palliative care and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health; time limited projects for epilepsy and family centred care; school based youth health nurse subnetwork.

Highlights:

Child development clinician handbooks

Child health framework implementation guide

PEDS/ASQ3 integration

Paediatric palliative care charter

Epilepsy family handbook

Family centred care resources

Obesity model of care

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and youth health worker governance structure

Model of care for developmental needs of children with childhood heart disease

Sustainability: Sustainability is the key element for the QCYCN review, however recurrent funding is an identified issue

Transferability: The QCYCN collaborates with all levels across the care continuum to ensure service improvement outputs are adaptable to varying contexts

Conclusions: The QCYCN is a leader in facilitating new integrated paediatric models of care

Discussions: Clinicians are the driving force to develop sustainable service improvement change

Lessons learnt: Key drivers for the success - effective leadership; positive internal and external relationships; high level of credibility