The True Colours Chair in Palliative Care for Children and Young People

Recruitment is underway at GOS UCL ICH for a new Professorial Chair in Palliative Care for Children and Young People, following Professor Myra Bluebond-Langner’s retirement in December 2021.

Myra Bluebond-Langner was the UK’s first Professorial Chair in Palliative Care for Children and Young People. The position was established by True Colours, with a ten-year funding commitment and a competitive process, to expand the evidence base, provide leadership and integrate children’s palliative care into UK academia. Professor Bluebond-Langner’s retirement coincided with the planned conclusion of True Colours’ funding.

Our hope and expectation, when establishing the Chair, was that the host institution would continue to provide support after our ten-year funding. We are delighted that GOS UCL ICH are continuing both the Professorial position and a programme of research in children’s palliative care at their world-renowned centre.

We look forward to welcoming and working with the new Professor at GOSH UCL ICH and will provide updates as soon as they become available.

Background

Professor Myra Bluebond-Langner was appointed as the UK’s first professorial chair in children’s palliative care in 2010 and was based in the Louis Dundas Centre for Children’s Palliative Care at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.

As Chair, Professor Bluebond-Langner led the development of high quality multidisciplinary collaborative studies which inform practice and training. Her stated goal was “to make a tangible difference in the lives of children with life-limiting conditions and life-threatening illnesses and their families through an integrated programme of research, practice, education and policy.”

An External Review of the True Colours Professorial Chair in Palliative Care for Children and Young People at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health was undertaken in 2018. The External Review Board noted the calibre of the Chair’s research, particularly on decision making which the Board expect to ‘become a gold standard reference in years to come’.

A list of selected publications (2010 – 2015) can be accessed by clicking here.

Professor Myra Bluebond-Langner retired at the end of 2021. A joint statement from UCL GOS ICH, GOSH Charity, Louis Dundas Centre Steering Committee & the True Colours Trust can be found here. True Colours is proud to have established the UK’s first, and only, professorial chair in children’s palliative care and to have funded the post for ten years.

Since becoming the True Colours Chair in 2010, Professor Bluebond-Langner led the field with her passion, academic rigour and commitment to children’s palliative care.   We are grateful for all she has done for the sector over the last ten years. We can say with great certainty that her work will improve the way services are delivered now and, in the future, in London, the UK and the world.