The HOPSCOTCH study ‘Helping Optimise Primary Care Support During Transition From Children’s Hospice Care’ aims to develop a toolbox to enable engagement of primary care services in the care of young people with life-limiting conditions (LLC) with a specific focus on the point of transition from children’s hospice services.

Individual interviews will be held with young people with LLC, their families and healthcare professionals (HCPs). In alignment with Experience Based Co-Design (EBCD) methodology, extracts of film and audio from young people and family interviews will be combined to professionally produce a ‘catalyst film’ highlighting key points and experiences before, during and after the transition from children’s hospice care. Role-specific workshops will be held with young people with LLC, their families and HCPs working in primary care, children’s hospices and adult hospice services. The catalyst film will be used in feedback workshops to prompt prioritisation of key issues to take forward into toolbox development in a shared young people, family and HCP workshop. A documentary analysis of resources currently used to support transition and communication between care settings will support contextual understanding of the transition process. Young people, parents and professionals have shaped and continue to have influence over the study delivery as advisors alongside a multidisciplinary steering committee.

The study design has been guided by the UK Medical Research Council complex intervention framework. Intervention development draws on the principles of EBCD and is theoretically driven by the Behaviour Change Wheel.

The study is registered with the UK’s Clinical Study Registry (ISCTRN75964234).

Ethical approval was obtained from Wales 3 ethics board on 2 July 2025 (IRAS ID 334486). This study will include ongoing dissemination and knowledge transfer to key audiences (young people, parents, service providers, commissioners) via publications, national bodies, knowledge exchange events, web-based platforms, social media and clinical/academic forums.

To estimate the direction and magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities in outcome, experience and care among adults consulting for a musculoskeletal pain condition.

Multicentre, prospective observational cohort with repeated measures at three waves (baseline, 3 months and 6 months after index consultation).

30 general practices in North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, England.

1875 consecutive, eligible, consenting patients, aged 18 years and over, presenting with a relevant SNOMED CT-coded musculoskeletal pain condition between September 2021 and July 2022.

Standard care.

Primary outcome was patient-reported pain and function using the Musculoskeletal Health Questionnaire (MSK-HQ score, 0–56). Secondary outcomes were patient experience (overall dissatisfaction with consultation experience, dichotomised) and an indicator of care received (opioid prescription within 14 days of index consultation). Using multilevel models, we examined inequalities in primary and secondary outcomes by area deprivation (Index of Multiple Deprivation derived from patient residential postcode), before and after adjusting for sociodemographic and survey administration variables, clinical case-mix and selected practice-level covariates.

Compared with patients from the least deprived neighbourhoods, patients from the most deprived neighbourhoods had significantly poorer MSK-HQ scores at baseline (mean 22.6 (SD 10.4) vs 27.6 (10.1)). At 6 months, the inequality gap in MSK-HQ score widened (difference in mean score after adjustment for all covariates: 1.94; 95% CI: –0.70 to 4.58). Opioid prescription was more common for patients living in the most deprived neighbourhoods (30% vs 19%; fully adjusted OR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.44 to 1.08). Only 6% of patients overall reported being dissatisfied with their consultation. Analysis of multiply imputed data produced a similar pattern of findings to complete-case analysis.

Substantial inequalities in the chronicity, severity and complexity of musculoskeletal pain problems are already present at the time of accessing care. Inequalities in pain and function do not reduce after accessing care and may even widen slightly.

ISRCTN18132064; Results.