A new clinical psychology service for young patients facing a brain tumour diagnosis has been launched in Oxford.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) has collaborated with charity Tom's Trust to establish the service.

Tom's Trust has provided a clinical psychologist to cater exclusively to the needs of children and young patients with brain tumours, as well as their families.

The psychologist will be present to support families if their child is dying, or has died from the disease.

The Tom's Trust post will triple the team’s current capacity for direct clinical work, and they expect to be able to offer an additional 300 appointments to children with brain tumours and their families each year.

Dr Jeni Tregay, paediatric clinical neuropsychologist at OUH, said: "Our current service sees many of the children and young people in our region diagnosed with a brain tumour but, like many similar services, we have no dedicated funding for neuro-oncology meaning that we are often unable to provide the depth of psychological support and intervention that we would like or the timely re-assessment and follow-up that these children need.

"With the new Tom's Trust service, we will be able to increase both the depth and breadth of psychological care that patients and their families receive.

"The new service will provide greater capacity for psychological intervention at an individual, family, and group level that we hope will help families to feel better supported through treatment and afterward."

Dr Emily Townsend, who has recently started her role as clinical psychologist, said: "Diagnoses of brain and central nervous system tumours can have substantial and wide-reaching impacts on both the young person and those close to them.

"As part of this role, I look forward to providing one-to-one support to young patients and their families, with a consideration of current treatment as well as the longer-term impacts this may have.

"I look forward to carrying out psychological and cognitive assessments, and using this information in developing personalised care pathways, as well as in my work with schools to support and ease reintegration."

The paediatric neuro-oncology service at the Children's Hospital in Oxford is the principal treatment centre for the Thames Valley region.

Dr Shaun Wilson, deputy divisional medical director for children's services and paediatric oncologist at OUH, said: "We are incredibly grateful to Tom's Trust for enabling this much-needed post.

"Children who have cancer are vulnerable, but particularly so in the case of brain tumours, so any additional support offered is extremely welcome.

"This post will allow us to make the service more robust, and allow us to hopefully expand clinical and research projects."