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Information should be clear and consistent. It should be given verbally and also in written and/or electronic form.⁸⁷

All post anaesthetic recovery staff looking after neuroscience patients should be able to recognise and describe complications following neuroanaesthesia and possess skills to obtain multidisciplinary assistance and escalate treatment according to departmental protocols and guidance. 

Children should receive information before admission that is appropriate to their age and level of understanding. Information can be provided at face-to-face meetings by nurses and play therapists, and enhanced with booklets,⁸⁸ web links or videos.

Young people have additional needs and may wish to speak to the anaesthetist or another member of staff without direct parental presence.^62,89 Anaesthetists should make it clear that they are willing to speak with young people on their own, on request.

Postmenarcheal female patients should be made aware of the need for clinicians to establish pregnancy status before surgery or procedures involving anaesthesia. While obtaining and documenting this information is primarily the responsibility of the operating surgeon or paediatrician, anaesthetists may also feel it necessary to confirm that such checks have been performed.⁷³

Anaesthetists treating children and young people must ensure that they understand the requirements for consent in the part of the UK in which they are working.^53,54,55,56

Regular audits of the following aspects of preoperative care may include:

• the effectiveness of preoperative information provided to patients
• preoperative documentation of consultation by anaesthetists
• consent to anaesthesia
• the effectiveness of preoperative assessment services
• preoperative visiting (patient waiting time, proportion of one stop visits)
• preoperative airway assessment
• preoperative fasting in adults and children
• appropriate preoperative medication
• thromboprophylaxis
• choice of technique...

Parental responsibility should be established in advance of admission, and appropriate consent procedures followed, involving the court and/or social services as appropriate.

For planned procedures, if there is doubt about parental responsibility, advice should be sought from senior hospital medicolegal advisors and/or defence organisations.

Although separate written consent for anaesthesia is not mandatory in the UK, there should be a written record of all discussions with the child and/or parent/carers about methods of induction, and provision of postoperative pain relief (including the use of suppositories).