Lay summary
Bronchiectasis is a chronic respiratory disease characterised by a chronic wet cough, increased sputum production and abnormal and permanent dilation of the bronchial wall. Best practice recommends children with bronchiectasis complete daily airway clearance at home, once or bi-daily, to support mucous expectoration from the lungs. Unfortunately, airway clearance is associated with poor adherence, especially in children from Māori or Pasifika decent and those living in socioeconomic hardship, which leads to recurrent chest infections, increased antibiotics and hospital admissions, disease progression, and poor quality of life including reduced school attendance. The proposed PACES programme provides a community-based initiative to provide supervised, high quality airway clearance within the school setting five days a week. The aim of this study is to investigate if the addition of the PACES programme to standard care improves health outcomes for children with bronchiectasis aged 5-12 years living in Counties Manukau.