Tracey has given her support for children with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions in Chatham & Aylesford at a Westminster event held by children’s palliative care charity Together for Short Lives. The event took place on Tuesday 17 June during Children’s Hospice Week (13-20), the national awareness and fundraising week for children not expected to reach adulthood and the services, like children’s hospices, that support them.

Tracey met with Anna Gill OBE, a parent carer of a young person with a life-limiting condition, in addition to representatives from Together for Short Lives, the charity behind Children’s Hospice Week. She agreed to write to the West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group and local authorities to ask what action they are taking to integrate services for children who need palliative care. Tracey also committed to asking health and social care commissioners how they were funding palliative care services and supporting children with life-limiting conditions and their families in Chatham & Aylesford.

Tracey said: “Providers of children’s palliative care offer a vital lifeline to families. Well commissioned and co-ordinated palliative care helps families make to the most of their time together and enables services to develop to meet their needs.

“It is essential that health and social care services work together to ensure that services are joined up and funded fairly and sustainably by the NHS and local authorities to ensure that the excellent care they provide can continue.”

Further information regarding Tracey’s work and campaign on perinatal health can be found here.

Visit www.togetherforshortlives.org.uk for more information about the charity’s work for children’s palliative care in the UK.