The National Child Cancer Network (NCCN) provides national leadership and oversight for child cancer services across Aotearoa New Zealand. We work to ensure children and young people with cancer have equitable access to consistent, safe, high-quality, child and whānau-centred care, regardless of who they are or where they live.
Established in 2011, the NCCN brings together health professionals, healthcare services, researchers, government agencies, community organisations, and whānau to strengthen child cancer care across New Zealand. We provide national coordination, foster collaboration, and support the delivery of best practice care throughout the child cancer continuum.
Our work spans clinical leadership, quality improvement, patient and whānau experience, data and research, and national advocacy. Together, these activities help strengthen child cancer services and improve care for children and young people with cancer.
The National Child Cancer Network brings together health professionals, carers and stakeholder organisations to work collaboratively and provide leadership for service development across child cancer services in New Zealand. The patient’s experience is central to our work. We seek to reflect the needs and preferences of children and families in all of our work and place particular emphasis on ensuring children receive the same quality of care regardless of whom they are or where they live in New Zealand.
The Network creates awareness of linkages between individuals and service providers, identifying opportunities to share information, knowledge and best practice across the country.
One of our strengths is our ability to stimulate creativity and innovation by providing opportunities and forums for people from different disciplines, organisations and parts of the country, to interact and exchange ideas. We focus on the total care environment from ‘clinical trial to taxi chit’, considering issues relating to the provision of medical, nursing, psycho-social and allied health services as well as patient and extended family support.
The Network supports a series of working groups, involving a diverse range of health and voluntary sector professionals. They provide advice, recommendations and action plans on specific areas of service delivery. Some current examples include groups that focus on Late Effects (survivorship) and Psychosocial Support for patients and their families and whānau.
