Council of Europe guidelines for child friendly health care

The “child friendly health care” guidelines [1] were recently produced by the Council of Europe (CoE) and endorsed by the ministers of 47 European nations attending the 9th Council of Europe Conference of Health Ministers in Lisbon, 29–30 September 2011. These guidelines aim to embed the values contained within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and other relevant charters in a practical model of service delivery that drives learning and improvement at all levels—from policy and planning, via service organisation and into individual clinical practice. This paper informs professionals working with children and their families about the child friendly health care approach to producing a practical outcome-orientated and requirement-driven framework that is based on the “journeys” and“pathways” that children and families experience in order to drive improvements in safety, experience and outcomes.