WHEN A CHILD
BECOMES
SERIOUSLY ILL,
#HUGHSLAW
WHEN A CHILD BECOMES SERIOUSLY ILL, THE WHOLE FAMILY IS AFFECTED. NOT JUST MEDICALLY, BUT EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY AND FINANCIALLY. YET THE SYSTEM ONLY SEES THE CHILD, AND LEAVES EVERYONE ELSE TO COPE ALONE. THAT MUST CHANGE.
THAT MUST CHANGE
#HUGHSLAW
THE REALITY
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHILD BECOMES SERIOUSLY ILL
EVERY YEAR, THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES ARE TOLD NEWS THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING.
Parents’ lives stop overnight. Mental health deteriorates rapidly. Siblings are left without support. Finances collapse just when families need stability most.
There is no statutory mental-health support for parents in the first days and weeks after diagnosis, no structured support for siblings, and no automatic financial protection for parents who must stop working to care for their child.
WHAT THE EVIDENCE TELLS US
Research shows Mothers face dramatically higher rates of depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease and long-term illness.
Fathers’ mental health often deteriorates in silence, with men less likely to be offered support while carrying financial pressure.
Siblings experience anxiety, isolation, educational disruption and are often forced to grow up fast without emotional support.
These outcomes are predictable and preventable, yet failing to support families early causes long-term harm and greater pressure on public services.
THE CLIFF EDGE IN SUPPORT
The NHS and Government rightly recognise that parents need support when a baby is born sick and throughout the first months of a child’s life.
During this period, parents are offered structured clinical, emotional and financial protections. But once a child moves beyond that early stage, the support falls away.
When a child becomes seriously ill later in childhood, parents face a cliff edge with no automatic paid leave, no early mental-health support, no structured help for siblings, and delays and bureaucracy at the point of crisis.
THE NEED DOES NOT DISAPPEAR - ONLY THE SUPPORT DOES.
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE
Parents Deserve Better calls for reform that recognises the family as a unit of care.
This means protected, paid leave from day one; early mental-health support for both parents; recognition and support for siblings; and a system that prevents crisis rather than responding after families have already broken.
SUPPORTING PARENTS IS ESSENTIAL TO SUPPORTING CHILDREN.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Parents should not have to choose between being by their child’s bedside, protecting their mental health, and keeping a roof over their family’s head. But right now, thousands do.
This is exactly what the welfare state was built for - to support people at their moment of greatest need, not abandon them.
PARENTS DESERVE BETTER.
CHILDREN NEED THEIR PARENTS.
AND THE SYSTEM MUST NOT LOOK AWAY.
ADD YOUR NAME
Make mental health support standard for parents of seriously ill children. We want this support made a standard part of every child’s care.
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