10-point bill of 'rights' for children

The list emerged at a meeting of Oxford Brookes University's Families and Childhood Visual Impairment Research Study, which launched a Charter for similar families within the context of the UN Rights of the Child and the UK's Children's Act (News, April 30).
The meeting, at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, was attended by representatives of voluntary organisations who welcomed the Charter, and heard results of a study involving 100 parents and families bringing up young children with a visual impairment.
The series of rights for families include:
That their expertise in their own child will be recognised from the start and that they will be involved as active partners in all decisions that affect them
That they will have timely access to diagnostic and assessment processes leading to early identification of any vision or other impairments present and swift referral to multidisciplinary services
That their child's condition, impairment and progress will be explained clearly, with empathy and in ways which will promote their understanding
That information on all aspects of available care, support and servicesÉwill be provided as soon as possible and regularly updated
That their child will receive the care, support and services that he or she needsÉas a child with a vision impairment.