Children’s nurses may assume that the care they provide for children and their families is family centred and meets their holistic needs. However, very little objective evaluation has been undertaken with children and young people regarding the health services and nursing care they receive. In this study, data were collected from 18 young ventilator-dependent people and their families in order to evaluate their experiences of health and social care. The UN Convention and other policy documents advocating client-focused services were used as benchmarks for analysis, demonstrating that the needs and aspirations of the young people are not being addressed and raising questions for nurses and other professionals.