CHAS will ensure that:

• We provide specialist palliative respite care and support to families with children in Scotland who have a life-limiting or life- threatening condition, as defined by The Association of Children with Life Threatening or Terminal Conditions/Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (ACT/RCPCH 1997).
• Services are available to families who are caring for a child with a life-limiting or life- threatening condition.
• Professionals involved in supporting children and their families, who may require the specialist palliative respite and ongoing care that hospices provide, are aware of and understand the role of a children’s hospice, the criteria for referral, and the range of services provided.
• Processing of referrals is undertaken in a responsive and efficient manner, minimising the impact on the families concerned.
• Life-limiting conditions are illnesses for which there is no reasonable hope of a cure and where death will usually occur before adulthood. Children and young children will often have slowly progressive conditions, which frequently require increasing nursing and personal care, as well as developing increasing complex medical problems. Life-threatening conditions are illnesses where treatment aimed at cure may be available, but a significant proportion of these children and young people may eventually also die before adulthood, in spite of treatment. If you require further information regarding these definitions, please refer to the following websites.