The Children’s Cancer ODN core workplan has mainly evolved out of the core benchmarking work, informing areas of improvement including:
Service Specifications
The Children’s Cancer ODN, plays a central role in supporting providers to meet and sustain the standards required for PTCs and POSCU designation, recognising that a skilled, confident, and appropriately trained workforce is fundamental to delivering safe and effective specialist care. Commissioned by NHS England, the ODN has led a review of children’s cancer services across the network to promote equitable, person‑centred care.
The ODN has worked with clinical teams across the POSCUs and PTCs to assess compliance to national service specifications and designation requirements. Following this review, Trust‑specific action plans have been developed to address identified gaps, with commitment secured from Trust executive teams and commissioners to drive improvements in children’s cancer care across the network and support providers in maintaining their designation.
This work has included identifying workforce gaps and escalating risks where shortages in staffing capacity, skills, or training may affect service delivery. It has also highlighted challenges related to clinical environments where limitations in space impact the ability to review patients effectively.
Through this assurance function, commissioners gain clear visibility of progress of services and increased confidence in the quality and safety of care being delivered.
POSCU Service Development
The ODN is supporting in the development and expansion of infusional systemic anti‑cancer therapy (SACT) delivery across the POSCU network, enabling care to be provided closer to home where clinically appropriate. This work includes working with the PTCs, supporting workforce competency development and pathway standardisation to ensure safety and consistency. Developing infusional SACT service, moves more children’s care to the POSCUs, optimising capacity with the PTCs, improves the children and families experience through reduced travel and time for appointments, while maintaining compliance with services specifications.
The ODN has worked with the network to develop a network wide POSCU parent feedback survey to gather detailed, meaningful insight into patient and family experience of care provision at their local POSCU. This allows POSCUs to obtain detailed local feedback on their services, will inform ongoing patient experience improvement work and support services development whilst ensuring the voice of children and families remain central.
The ODN is also working with providers to support improvements to electronic prescribing systems to strengthen the safe delivery of SACT across the network. This includes promoting consistent use of electronic prescribing, supporting standardisation of prescribing processes, and improving data quality and reporting. Enhanced electronic prescribing underpins safer medicines management, reduces the risk of errors, and enables more accurate and timely reporting of SACT activity.
To support equitable access and consistent clinical decision‑making, the ODN is working with the providers to review and develop radiology guidance across the network. This includes assessing capacity, access to specialist imaging, and the consistency of reporting, as well as clarifying the roles and responsibilities of POSCU and PTC teams to standardise pathways. Work to standardise radiology reporting support timely diagnosis, treatment planning, and multidisciplinary decision‑making, while reducing unwarranted variation between providers. This work will strengthen equity of access to high‑quality diagnostic services for children and young people across the network.
Access to data
The ODN is developing a children’s cancer dashboard to support governance and oversight of network activity, identify areas for improvement and monitor outcomes and provision.
Fertility
Fertility preservation is a key part of high-quality children cancer care, ensuring children and young people at risk of treatment related infertility receive timely advice and access to preservation options, as well as supporting those with premature ovarian insufficiency.
The ODN is supporting the development of network referral guidance to align with national pathways and work with providers to ensure these are embedded into local policies. Work is underway to scope and develop network approved patient information for fertility preservation to support consistency and standardisation across providers. This will ensure that children and young people receive accurate, accessible, and age-appropriate information, regardless of where they are treated, supporting informed decision making at a highly sensitive time.
In addition, the network will scope and report variation in fertility storage arrangements, including length of storage, associated costs, and access to cryopreservation for eggs, embryos, and sperm samples. Understanding current variation will provide an evidence base to inform future improvement work, support equitable access, and strengthen advocacy with commissioners and fertility providers to reduce unwarranted differences in provision and long-term support for survivors.
Wider provider led improvement work supported by the ODN includes:
- Workforce development
- Availability and access to clinical trials
- Access to whole genome sequencing and bio banking
- Palliative care provision
- Aftercare and Late Effects provision
- Ambulatory care