Background: Worldwide, around 21 million children would benefit from palliative care and over 7 million babies and children die each year. Whilst provision of paediatric palliative care is advancing, there major gaps between what should be done, and what is being done, in clinical practice. In 2017, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) introduced a quality standard, to standardise and improve children’s palliative care in England. However, there is little evidence about what good experiences of palliative care for children are, and how they relate to the quality standard for end-of-life care. Aim: This study explored how the NICE quality standard featured in parental experiences of palliative care for children to understand what ‘good’ palliative care is. Design: Qualitative study, employing in-depth, telephone and video-call, semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using thematic analysis, informed by Appreciative Inquiry. Setting/participants: Participants were parents of children and young people (aged 0–17 years) in England, who were receiving palliative care, and parents whose child had died. Results: Fourteen mothers and three fathers were interviewed. Seven were bereaved. Parents were recruited via four children’s hospices, one hospital, and via social media. Good palliative care is co-led and co-planned with trusted professionals; is integrated, responsive and flexible; encompasses the whole family; and enables parents to not only care for, but also to parent their child to end of life. Conclusions: Findings have implications for informing evidence based practice and clinical guidelines, overall improving experiences of care.

BackgroundUnderstanding teachers' experiences throughout the school closures and reopenings that have characterized large periods of the COVID‐19 pandemic provides us with unique insights into what it means to be a teacher during a global public health crisis.Aim and MethodTo investigate teachers' narratives of their experiences, we conducted 95 semi‐structured interviews with 24 teachers in England across four time points between April and November 2020. We used a longitudinal qualitative trajectory analysis of participants' stories of their high‐, low‐ and turning‐points.ResultsWe derived four themes that were evident at each time point and developed over time. The themes were: (1) growing frustration at uncertainties caused by poor government leadership, (2) expanding concern for pupil learning and well‐being, (3) an increasingly labour‐intensive and exhausting job and (4) declining pleasure and pride in being a teacher.ConclusionsThe findings shed light on the impact of COVID‐19 on the professional identity of these teachers and we propose ways in which teachers can be supported now and in the future.

This study explores how capable young children are of thinking about a potential future that uses DNA screening to assess an individual’s likelihood of experiencing learning or behaviour difficulties. Puppets and a scenario-based approach were used to ask children aged 4–10 (n = 165) whether they thought DNA screening might be helpful or harmful. A content analysis derived six categories: (1) ‘Worried about being – and being seen as – different’; (2) ‘Beliefs about the origins of learning and behaviour’; (3) ‘Testing is harmful’; (4) ‘Testing could help’; (5) ‘How soon is too soon for testing?’; and (6) ‘What’s the point?’. Findings indicate young children, as key stakeholders, can make useful contributions to public debate in this important and controversial area.