Coalition welcomes commitment to improve earlier diagnosis

The Children and Young People’s Cancer Coalition (CYP Cancer Coalition) welcomes the publication of the Government’s National Cancer Plan.

After a prolonged period of uncertainty, its publication is an important milestone and a significant opportunity to improve outcomes and experiences for people affected by cancer. 

The Little Princess Trust is part of the CYP Cancer Coalition and we welcome the inclusion of a dedicated section on children and young people with cancer.

This reflects a long-standing ask of the sector and recognises that children and young people experience different cancers, diagnostic pathways, treatment impacts and long-term consequences from adults.

Explicit recognition within the plan matters, and is a testament to sustained engagement from the Children and Young People’s Cancer Taskforce, clinicians, researchers, charities and people with lived experience. 

What the Coalition welcomes in the plan 

The coalition welcomes the intent set out across the children and young people’s section of the Plan. The plan sets out a clear package of actions for children and young people with cancer, developed through the Children and Young People’s Cancer Taskforce.

These include commitments to improve early diagnosis and routes to diagnosis; strengthen experience of care and support; improve access to research, clinical trials, genomics and innovation; address data gaps; and provide practical support for families, including a new national travel costs fund. 

These themes closely reflect long-standing sector evidence and the priorities consistently raised by children, young people and families. Their inclusion provides an important foundation for progress. 

Early diagnosis and routes to diagnosis 

The coalition welcomes recognition of earlier diagnosis as a priority for children and young people. Evidence, including the Cancer Patient Experience survey, consistently shows the inequity that children and young people experience multiple healthcare contacts before diagnosis and are more likely to present via emergency routes. These delays are avoidable and can lead to more intensive treatment, poorer experiences, and worse long-term outcomes. 

For children and young people, prevention and early diagnosis must focus on preventing delayed diagnosis - rather than adult-centric behavioural risk factors that do not meaningfully apply to this group. 

The plan includes a comprehensive set of actions to improve earlier diagnosis for children and young people. These include ensuring primary and emergency care clinicians have rapid access to consultant paediatric advice; improving access to paediatric diagnostic services in the community; and requiring that all imaging for suspected cancer in children and young people is reported by, or reviewed by, a paediatric radiologist.

The plan also commits to embedding children and young people’s needs within neighbourhood health services and multidisciplinary teams, including ensuring lead paediatric expertise within neighbourhood MDTs. These commitments directly address long-standing evidence of delayed diagnosis, fragmented referral pathways and inconsistent access to specialist input. 

Clear implementation will depend on: 

• Sustained professional and public awareness of CYP cancer signs and symptoms. 
• Consistent use of CYP-specific referral guidance. 
• Consistent implementation across regions.
• Clear CYP-specific data and metrics that capture the full diagnostic interval rather than adult-focused standards.

Progress will depend on diagnostic pathways that work for all children and young people across the age range. Delivery should build on existing, evidence-based initiatives already developed across the sector, including awareness campaigns co-produced with children, young people and families.  

Experience of care and psychosocial support 

The coalition welcomes recognition that experience of care and psychosocial support are integral to outcomes for children and young people with cancer — not optional extras. 

Cancer in childhood and young adulthood places profound emotional, psychological and practical strain on children, young people and their families. Evidence consistently shows that access to psychosocial support remains variable and too often dependent on geography or charity provision. 

A world-class CYP cancer pathway must ensure: 

• Psychosocial support is embedded from diagnosis and sustained throughout treatment and follow-up.
• Support includes children and young people, parents, carers and siblings.
• Services are developmentally appropriate and trauma-informed. 
• Care environments support play, education, peer connection and family presence.
• Address financial and practical pressure on families.       

The plan makes a clear commitment to improving experience of care for children and young people, recognising psychosocial support as a core component of quality cancer care rather than an optional add-on.

It commits to standardising the provision of age-appropriate psychological support during diagnosis, treatment and long-term follow-up, and to improving hospital experience through access to play, youth support and coordinated care.

The plan also recognises the role of youth support and MDT coordinators in improving experiences and outcomes, including commitments to ensure patients aged 16-24 are referred to the appropriate MDT for teenagers and young adults, to support early, coordinated discussions – for example around fertility and wider support needs.

And commits to the uptake of best practice resources such as the Play Well toolkit, alongside clearer expectations for regions and providers. Without clear resourcing and accountability, longstanding variation in access to psychosocial support will persist. 

Living with and beyond cancer 

The coalition welcomes recognition that cancer in childhood and young adulthood has lifelong consequences. Survival alone is not enough. 

Children and young people may experience late effects impacting physical health, mental health, education, employment and social participation for decades after treatment ends. Support must therefore be continuous, holistic and accessible. 

The plan recognises that cancer in childhood and young adulthood has lifelong consequences and that survival alone is not enough. It commits to standardising surveillance for late effects and secondary cancers, improving long-term follow-up, and strengthening transitions between services and life stages.

The plan also acknowledges the need for holistic, accessible support beyond treatment, including psychological support, rehabilitation and coordinated care, reflecting the long-term physical, emotional and social impacts experienced by many children and young people. 

To deliver meaningful improvement, services must: 

• Be accessible regardless of geography or age.
• Provide structured transitions between services and life stages.
• Address financial and practical pressures that affect recovery and wellbeing                     

Research, data and innovation 

The coalition welcomes recognition of research, genomics and innovation as key enablers of improved outcomes for children and young people. This is critical given that most CYP cancers are rare or less common, and survival for some groups has seen limited improvement over decades. 

The plan explicitly prioritises children and young people’s cancer within national research and innovation efforts. It commits to establishing national collaborative research priorities, reducing duplication and addressing gaps, and breaking down barriers to clinical trial access - including requiring justification for age limits that exclude children and young people.

The plan also commits to improving access to genomics through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, including the establishment of national inherited cancer predisposition services for children and young people.

Crucially, it recognises long-standing gaps in data and commits to improving the collection and publication of national CYP cancer data, including exploring the publication of diagnostic interval data and developing a stronger evidence base on long-term outcomes and survivorship. 

Progress will depend on: 

• Explicit prioritisation of CYP cancers within national research strategies and funding.
• Removing barriers to clinical trial activation and access, including age-inappropriate eligibility criteria.
• Investment in kinder, less toxic treatments that reduce lifelong harm.
• Robust, age-disaggregated data to underpin research, commissioning and innovation. Data must be disaggregated in ways that meaningfully reflect different ages and stages. 

   

Children and young people must be designed into innovation from the outset, not added later. 

Connecting the CYP section to the wider Cancer Plan 

While a dedicated children and young people’s section is a significant step forward, it cannot sit in isolation. Many of the levers that will determine success — including workforce planning, diagnostics, data systems and research infrastructure — sit within the wider sections of the Plan. 

While the dedicated children and young people’s section is a significant step forward, the Plan also makes clear that many of the levers required to deliver improvement - including workforce planning, diagnostics, data systems and research infrastructure - sit within the wider Cancer Plan. 

The Plan’s Executive Summary makes clear that national ambitions will only be achieved if there is real progress for children and young people with cancer, and for those affected by rare and less common cancers.

This reinforces the importance of ensuring CYP commitments are not only articulated, but delivered in practice across the wider system. Commitments relating to neighbourhood health services, multidisciplinary team design, diagnostic capacity, data improvement and research reform will all be critical to the successful delivery of CYP-specific ambitions. Alignment across the whole plan will therefore be essential to avoid CYP commitments being siloed or undermined in practice. 

Alignment across the whole Plan will be essential to ensure CYP commitments are deliverable and not siloed. 

Partnership as the route to delivery 

There is still much to do. Publication of the National Cancer Plan must mark the beginning of sustained collaboration. Many of the Plan’s commitments explicitly recognise the role of charities in research, innovation, service development and patient experience, reinforcing the importance of partnership in turning national ambition into real-world change. 

Charities supporting children and young people with cancer bring deep expertise, trusted relationships with families and a proven track record of delivering support, insight and innovation. The third sector is already a core part of the CYP cancer system and must be recognised as a strategic partner in implementation, delivery and scrutiny.