Single Point of Contact

The Single Point of Contact project is a six-month pilot (starting in December 2023) to provide a single point of contact for specialist advice and support, deteriorating or dying babies, children and young people, aged 0-19 years old, with palliative and end-of-life care needs.

The service is available to all healthcare providers across the East Midlands, including GPs, Hospitals, Community services and 111 Out of Hours.

To access the service, you will need to call 01509 638 000. On the call, you will initially speak to a call handler who will take some basic information from you. A specialist Nurse will then call you back within 15 minutes.

All babies, children and young people identified as deteriorating or dying by an HCP will be accepted onto the SPOC caseload and discussed at the next weekly regional MDT meeting. In between the MDT meeting, immediate advice and care will be provided as required for the babies, children and young people and reviewed at the next MDT meeting.

The email address for SPOC correspondence is eastmidlands.spoc@nhs.net

As the specialist centre for paediatric palliative care, Rainbows has been selected to run the six-month trial. This will see a team of seven Clinical Nurse Specialists and Advanced Clinical Practitioners running the project.

The SPOC is a six month pilot with an evaluation element part of it. You may be asked to participate in the Evaluation process.