Safety Netting for Children in Primary Care

Exploring the most effective ways of providing safety netting advice for parents of unwell children

It is never going to be possible to identify all children with serious illness at their first medical appointment, therefore doctors use what is called ‘safety netting’ to help empower parents to know what symptoms to look out for in their child and when to bring them back for further medical attention. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Northampton, and UCL in London, we are using research to identify what are the most effective ways of providing parents with this type of information. This is important as we will need increasingly to help parents navigate through the different ways of receiving care, including GPs, walk in centres, out of hours, emergency departments, and NHS telephone advice lines. Our research will help to give parents more accurate information about managing their child’s illness in the most appropriate setting, and includes:

• Qualitative research involving focus groups and interviews with parents from different backgrounds, and healthcare professionals, to identify their safety netting information needs.

For more information contact Caroline Jones or Matthew Thompson