How we work

Sharing good practice

The central philosophy of The CoLab is that we must avoid the silo working that is so common and wasteful. All individual and organisational members commit to share information about their good practice and quality improvement initiatives, either in how they care for children with medical complexity or in how they train or support the clinical staff involved in their care. For example:

• Birmingham Children's Hospital has a dedicated Children with Medical Complexities Team (CMic) 
• Evelina London Children's Hospital has a mediation service and has been involved in a longstanding programme of work to train professionals in how recognise conflict at an early stage.

Developing new approaches

We need to explore new ways of doing things. This might mean adopting the best of what other countries have to offer in terms of models of care. Or it might mean exploring new ways to support staff - learning from other disciplines or professions.

To do this we need evidence, and we will examine available literature in these relevant areas as a first step to proposing any changes.

Developing new resources

There are many excellent resources available - whether in clinical guidance, educational resources or other support groups, and where we find them, we will signpost them. 

But we also recognise that there are gaps in what is available. We will assess what those gaps are and seek funding to develop new resources to help staff and families deliver better care and support for the children they are looking after and for each other.