Teenage and Young Adult (TYA) Cancer
The Thames Valley & Wessex Teenagers and Young Adult (TYA) Cancer Operational Delivery Network was established in 2021 to work with patients, families, health and social care professionals to achieve the improvement aims of NHS England, reduce inequalities and support standardisation of care.
The driver for these improvements is embedded through service specifications (published May 2023) which cover the requirements for the Principal Treatment Centre (PTC) and the Designated Hospitals (DHs) and the Network. These service specifications were written to support contractual implementation of the recommendations set out by the Cancer Taskforce and the NHS Long Term Plan. Including the following objectives:
- Improve integration between different TYA cancer services
- Improve the experience of care for teenagers and young adults living with cancer diagnosis
- Increase access to and participation in clinical trials
- Increase tumour banking rates
- Improve the transition between children’s and TYA services, in particular ensuring that there is no age gap between different services
- Embed genomic medicine within TYA cancer services
In collaboration with commissioners and PTC/DH colleagues, the TYA Cancer ODN core work has been to ensure the delivery of these service specifications through Trust specific benchmarking, action plans and follow up.
Further details on the role of TYA Cancer Networks can be found at NHS England’s TYA service specifications.
