National paediatric palliative care service a vital and long overdue step for children’s rights

Children’s Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad welcomes today’s pre-Budget announcement of a funded national paediatric palliative care service, calling it “a significant and long‑overdue step toward upholding the rights of children with life‑limiting conditions.”

“Today’s investment responds directly to the serious concerns I have raised over the past few years about the untenable, inequitable and inadequate state of paediatric palliative care in Aotearoa New Zealand,” says Dr Achmad.

“Children who are dying - like all children - have the right to the highest attainable standard of health care, and to be supported with clinical and wraparound care to help them experience comfort, and even joy, in the hardest part of their life journey. Children receiving the right specialist and wraparound palliative care is crucial for their whānau, too.

“For too long, children and their whānau have faced unacceptable gaps in care at the most vulnerable and distressing time in their lives. This announcement shows a clear commitment from the Government to closing those gaps.”

The Commissioner says the new investment plan aligns with the major failings highlighted by advocates in recent years. These include the lack of a funded national service, workforce sustainability and the geographic inequality of the current situation.

“New Zealand has never had a national paediatric palliative care service, meaning children outside Auckland were effectively excluded from specialist palliative care. Establishing this new service is a critical step toward ensuring every child, no matter where they live, can access the specialist care they need.

“Relying on one paediatric palliative care doctor for the entire country has been unsafe and unsustainable, and so the creation of multiple specialist teams will make a necessary and meaningful difference.

“Today I particularly commend all those involved in advocating so powerfully over many years for children to have access to paediatric palliative care when they need it, in their communities and homes. It’s been a privilege to advocate together with Rei Kōtuku and the wider community of clinicians and specialist allied workers, and I acknowledge their incredible work alongside dying children and their whānau.

“I acknowledge the immensely brave advocacy of many bereaved parents, siblings and whānau for this change to happen. I’m keen to learn more about how the service will be implemented, and I’ll continue advocating for children, siblings, parents and whānau to be involved in shaping the design, so the national paediatric palliative care service can effectively meet child and whānau needs.”

“It’s positive that the first pre-Budget 2026 announcement focuses on children, and I acknowledge the Minister of Health for this. This is positive both under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Te Tiriti o Waitangi and shows what’s possible when children are prioritised in government decision-making. I hope to see more priority focus on children in Budget 2026, so they can all experience their rights in all circumstances, no matter where they are in New Zealand.”

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Children’s Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad is available for interviews. For media enquiries, please contact:

Melissa Wastney
029 909 2715