Big conversations
Learn about and inform our work on the key issues facing Hospice UK members across the UK.
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What's on this page
Big conversations
We are facilitating a series of webinars, workshops and roundtables that will enable our members to:
- learn more about key issues
- share your knowledge and experience to inform our work
- discuss problems and solutions with your peers
- get practical guidance to move work forward.
How it works
Webinars
These are online sessions with a large audience, where we will share information about the key issues affecting our sector. They give you a chance to hear from from Hospice UK and invited experts.
These sessions are aimed at anyone working or volunteering in a Hospice UK member organisation.
Workshops
Our workshops are practical sessions that share best practice. They aim to develop your skills in a particular area so you can take work forward in your hospice.
Our workshops are facilitated by Hospice UK subject experts, in collaboration with specialists from elsewhere. They are open to anyone working or volunteering in a Hospice UK member organisation, and sometimes a wider, targeted audience.
Roundtables
These smaller sessions provide an opportunity for people who are interested in a particular topic to discuss it in depth and share their experiences. We will invite hospice leaders to a roundtable to help inform our joint work.
Join the conversation
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The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed its Second Reading in the House of Commons on 29 November.
To ensure Hospice UK is prepared to engage with the detail of the legislation if it passes its Second Reading, we are holding three Big Conversations workshops with hospice staff and volunteers to hear your thoughts and reflections on its text. These will be held on:
- Friday 6 December from 11am - 1pm
- Tuesday 10 December from 2pm - 4pm
- Thursday 12 December from 2:30pm - 4:30pm
We have had very high demand for these workshops, which are now full. We are managing a waiting list of people who have registered and may be able to offer spaces if others drop out.
We know many more hospice staff will want to be involved and share their perspectives with us. In the new year we will be looking for more ways for you to inform our work around the Bill, and will prioritise those who registered their interest but were not given a space in the workshops.
If you would like to be added to the priority list please email us.
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The Scottish Government is currently consulting on its draft palliative care strategy. We are holding this online workshop to inform Hospice UK’s consultation response.
We will discuss:
- How well the strategy captures the role and contribution of the hospice care sector.
- The overall aims, outcomes and proposed actions in the strategy.
- The implementation, delivery and monitoring of the strategy.
The workshop is aimed at senior hospice staff, including chief executives, clinical and service leads, workforce and education leads, policy colleagues and community engagement leads.
We suggest hospices each nominate two members of staff to join the workshop. Attendees will be expected to be familiar with the draft strategy and come ready to share their views. All feedback we receive will be anonymised in our final submission to the Scottish Government.
Contact us to secure your place.
Previous sessions
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Each year, we produce a report that analyses financial information and identifies trends from independent, charitable hospices based on their published accounts. Separately, we conduct a quarterly top line review of hospice finances, which enables you to compare your hospice’s performance against aggregated figures from across the sector.
We presented the most recent findings from both these activities in a webinar on 4th December 2024.This session was not recorded but you can access the report and slides here.
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During the summer of 2024 we carried out our first hospice technology maturity survey, in partnership with TES and Smartdesc. In this webinar we shared the findings of the survey.
Speakers at this session included:- Steve Thorlby-Coy, Director of Transformation, Hospice UK
- Adam Mytton, New Business Sales Executive, TES
- Chris Wilson, Nonprofit Technology & Solutions Strategist, TES.
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On 23rd October 2024 we discussed the proposed legislation on assisted dying in England and Wales, and its potential impact on hospices. We covered:
- Hospice UK’s position on assisted dying and our activity across the UK
- a summary of the proposed legislation in Westminster and how the Bill is likely to progress
- key issues that could impact English and Welsh hospices
- how we can best engage with hospices and their staff on this issue moving forward.
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This workshop on 21st October 2024 was the first in a series being run with colleagues from Marie Curie and Microsoft. This series aims to share skills on data reporting and the use of Power BI.
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In this workshop on 3rd July 2024, we were joined by Dr. Sabrina Bajwah from the Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College London, Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care. Dr Bajwah facilitated a discussion about how hospices across the UK can deliver equitable palliative and end of life care to all ethnicities.
Educational film
- The discussion was informed by the educational film Shifting the focus from equality to equity, which was developed by Dr Bajwah and her team.
Helpful resources
- Bignall T and Phillips J. Improving the recording of ethnicity in health datasets: Exploring the views of community respondents and the healthcare workforce [Internet]. Race Equality Foundation; 2022 [cited 2024 Jul 11].
- Bajwah S, Koffman J, Hussain J, Bradshaw A, Hocaoglu MB, Fraser LK et al. Specialist palliative care services response to ethnic minority groups with COVID-19: equal but inequitable—an observational study. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2024 Jul 11];14:e1478–e1487.
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In this webinar on 27th June 2024, we asked how complexity can be measured in the context of palliative care. We explored how increasing complexity links to the resources needed to deliver care, and how this might link to costs and reimbursement.
Speakers included Gary Stinson, Payment Development Manager, NHS England; Matthew Grant, Palliative Medicine Physician/Assistant Professor at University Medical Centre Utrecht and University of Melbourne; Fliss Murtagh, Director of the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre.
Download the slides from the session
Helpful resources
- ElMokhallalati Y, Bradley SH, Chapman E, Ziegler L, Murtagh FEM, Johnson M J, et al. Identification of patients with potential palliative care needs: A systematic review of screening tools in primary care. Palliative Medicine [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2024 Jul 01];34(8):989-1005.
- Grant M, de Graaf E, Teunissen S. A systematic review of classifications systems to determine complexity of patient care needs in palliative care. Palliative Medicine [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2024 Jul 01];35(4):636-650.
- Pask S, Pinto C, Bristowe K, et al. A framework for complexity in palliative care: A qualitative study with patients, family carers and professionals. Palliative Medicine [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2024 Jul 01];32(6):1078-1090.
- Marie Curie. Understanding the cost of end of life care in different settings. [Internet] Marie Curie; 2012 [cited 2024 Jul 01].
- Murtagh FEM, Guo P, Firth A, Yip KM, Ramsenthaler C, Douiri A, et al. A casemix classification for those receiving specialist palliative care during their last year of life across England: the C-CHANGE research programme. Programme Grants for Applied Research [Internet] 2023 [cited 2024 Jul 01];11(7).
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On 11th June 2024 we explored the creation of a national career pathway for nurses and allied health professionals in palliative and end of life care (PEOLC). We were joined by Professor Vanessa Taylor, Huddersfield University and Lesley Goodburn, NHS England. They shared their expertise and insights on:
- the development of a core capability framework and associated qualifications, designed to enhance specialised expertise for PEOLC nurses
- the progress made so far in these initiatives and the potential implications for the clinical workforce
- how resources developed to share lived experience might support education and development.
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On 23rd May 2024 we shared the key findings from our Service Activity and Workforce surveys.
This included:- what the data from the surveys is telling us about the national picture of hospice care
- ways we can improve the data
- how we might use it to showcase the value of hospice care.
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We were joined on 14th May 2024 by Karen Hayllar, the Senior Lead in NHS England’s ‘Making Data Count’ team.
Karen explained the value of statistical process control (SPC) charts to analyse patient safety incident data as part of a hospice’s continuous improvement journey.
We learnt:
- the differences between quality assurance and performance management
- how recognising variation in data over time can be used to support conversations about safety and quality.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Masonic Charitable Foundation for their generous funding to support the hospice care sector.
This provides opportunities for hospices to engage in learning, share insights, discuss challenges with peers and receive practical guidance to help improve their work.