Magnifying What Matters: Revolution, Evolution and Solution in Children’s Palliative Care
by Erin Das, Global Treehouse Practice Lead
I had the privilege of delivering a plenary session at the 2nd annual South African Palliative Care Conference in Durban, South Africa, on a topic that is sparking energy and change across children’s palliative care services around the world: how we collect, analyze, and use our service data to improve care. This critical discussion aligned with the conference’s overarching themes: Revolution, Evolution and Solution.
I presented on how to use the Magnify Tool, a customisable resource built and co-designed with and for children’s palliative care specialists worldwide. Beyond just a tool, it represents something much bigger: a community of providers committed to transforming how we measure, reflect and grow our impact together.
The call for revolution in palliative care is clear: we must collectively transform how our vital work is valued and integrated into health systems. The Magnify Tool serves as one response to this broader need. By helping services better understand and communicate their impact, the tool supports a radical shift: treating palliative care not as an optional service, but as an essential, evidence-informed obligation alongside curative, preventive and rehabilitative care. It offers over 100 metrics across 10 focus areas, providing children's palliative care (CPC) teams with a structured way to elevate their data, covering everything from patient feedback to staff wellbeing and how they track outcomes of care.
Palliative care around the world is constantly evolving to meet the needs of diverse populations, spanning various languages, geographies, belief systems and resource contexts. The Magnify Tool was designed with this diversity in mind. We co-designed with over 50 providers from more than 20 countries, utilising a human-centred design approach grounded in real-world challenges and diverse care models. Its open-access format and adaptable structure make it incredibly useful for small community-based teams, national programmes or regional hospitals. Teams can utilise the Magnify Tool to identify what data matters most in their setting, providing both flexibility and cultural relevance.
During my plenary session, the audience participated by adopting a solution-oriented approach and considering actions they could take in their own context. I moved on to share about how a children’s palliative care team might use the tool to select a focus area, such as “Family Feedback," and then rate their current practices, discussing what was working and identifying gaps, ultimately moving from ideas to implementation. A powerful real-world example comes from our partners, the Paedspal team in Cape Town, South Africa, who used the tool to explore staff wellbeing. They realised that despite offering wellness activities, they weren't systematically measuring how staff were coping. By adopting the ProQoL survey, Paedspal identified specific needs and tailored their support, ultimately drafting a dedicated staff wellbeing policy grounded in data and team feedback. The team added a simple tally system, asking staff to track their case loads, which they now monitor every month.
Across the globe, palliative care teams are entering a new phase where data isn’t just for compliance, but is actively used to guide care, support staff and advocate for changes. Together, we are building a community of teams who are curious, courageous and committed to having honest conversations about what’s working—and what’s not.
Whether you’re ready to start a revolution, reflect on your evolution or are searching for a solution, the Magnify Tool is here to accelerate your reflection. Let’s continue magnifying what matters most in children's palliative care.
