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Family Advisory Council

Welcome to the RCH Family Advisory Council (FAC)

  • Young people heal best when their families are part of the care team. The FAC promotes improved relationships between patients, families/carers and staff and seeks to actively engage family perspective in the design of services. 

    The FAC has two types of members: volunteer parents and carers of young people as well as staff representatives. We work together to ensure consumer expertise and experience is available to the health service. The Chairperson of the group is a position that is always held by a parent member. All members on the current FAC group have committed to be part of the team for 2 years, come from diverse backgrounds and reside in both metropolitan and rural areas of Victoria. As such, we are committed to constantly improving care for families at The Royal Children’s Hospital.

    As a recognised Committee of The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), Melbourne, we adhere to the policies set by the RCH, which includes our obligation to maintain patient confidentiality.

    Why have a FAC?

    The RCH is committed to the principle that the delivery of health care will be based on partnerships between patients, families, and all those involved in their care. In order to achieve, the RCH has established a hospital-wide Family Advisory Council to promote and improve the RCH's approach to patient and family centred care. The key principles of patient and family centred care are:

    • Dignity and respect
    • Information sharing
    • Participation
    • Collaboration

    The FAC and the RCH work in partnership to deliver patient and family centred care.

    How does the FAC contribute?

    We work in partnership with the RCH to:

    • Identify areas where care can be improved – where safety or the quality of outcomes could be improved, or where services could be more focused on the needs of patients and families
    • Develop, in consultation with patients and families, solutions to problems identified by families
    • Contribute a parent/carer perspective. For example - contributing and making suggestions to educational material for families produced by the RCH.