Clinical care

CLIC Sargent funds specialist nurses, who work on paediatric oncology wards, children's wards and teenage and young adult units at hospitals across the UK. They provide a high level of clinical care, support and experience to children and young people with cancer, and their families.

CLIC Sargent Nurses have the same training as NHS nurses, and are even employed by the NHS. They work as part of the oncology team, providing care and support to children and young people with cancer both in hospital and in the community.

Our nurses can arrange for children and young people to have some treatments at home, such as blood tests, cleaning lines and sometimes chemotherapy.

Home visits mean that families don’t always have to travel to hospital, which may be a long way from their home, and also give parents the opportunity to talk away from a clinical setting, which many families find to be a huge support.

CLIC Sargent nurses can also visit a child or young person’s school, to update class teachers on any work completed in hospital, and to explain how treatment may affect the child or young person when he or she returns to mainstream education.

CLIC Sargent research has found that children with cancer travel an average of 60 miles, up to five times a week for hospital treatment. This can add to the many physical, emotional, practical and financial pressures that children and their families face following a cancer diagnosis.

Children with cancer have told CLIC Sargent that they need more help to keep up with education, friendships and everyday life, and spending more time at home, or closer to home, gives them the opportunity to do this.

CLIC Sargent’s new specialist nurse key workers ensure that assessments of all the child’s needs are undertaken and coordinate all of their care in the hospital and the community, so that children with cancer can spend less time in hospital and more time safely at home during treatment.

They play a vital role linking hospital, community and other services that the child with cancer and their family access. They can also provide practical support to help children and their families experience less disruption to their day to day lives.

CLIC Sargent has been able to establish specialist nurse key worker roles at every children’s cancer centre across the UK thanks to funds raised by its Tesco Charity of the Year Partnership.

The charity is also piloting the key worker-led model of care for young people with cancer, in partnership with the Royal Marsden Hospital, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children in Brighton, and Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent.