Happy New Year from ICPCN

As we start this New Year we are looking forward to an exciting year ahead here at ICPCN with lots of activities and reasons to be excited.

2025 is our 20th Anniversary – it was in March 2005 that ICPCN was formed by a group of pioneers attending a meeting in Seoul, South Korea and Joan Marston was elected as the first Chair of ICPCN and Barbara Gelb and Lizzie Chambers as Vice Chairs. Whilst recognising there is still a long way to go to ensure that all children who need palliative care around the world have access to palliative care services, it is important that we also recognise the achievements and developments  within the field of palliative care over the past 20 years – and we will be celebrating some of these during 2025.

In November 2025 we will be holding our 4th ICPCN Conference. Our conference – Milestones and Horizons – will be held in Manila, Philippines in partnership with the Ruth Foundation and a wide range of organisations within the country. Please find below our ‘Save the Date’ and we will provide more information over the coming weeks, as well as launching our conference website soon. We will also introduce you to and highlight the work of our many partners working with us on the conference. Please do put the date in your diary and we hope to see you there!

In 2025 we will be launching a Global Position Paper on Children’s Palliative Care and will be inviting organisations to endorse the position paper and carrying out an advocacy campaign in 2025 and 2026 – Please keep an eye out for our monthly newsletter which will keep you updated on this campaign as we continue to raise the profile of children’s palliative care globally.

There will also be many exciting opportunities to get involved in communication, advocacy, research, education and strategic development and we will tell you more about these as they come up. We also hope to advertise for some additional members to our team early in the New Year.

So, as you can see, there is lots to be excited by here at ICPCN for 2025 and we hope that you will continue to partner with us throughout the year as we promote the development of children’s palliative care around the world.