Improving Inclusivity Award

The Hospice UK Awards celebrate the innovative work taking place in hospices and palliative care organisations across the UK, and the people involved with them

The Improving Inclusivity Award recognises the work of an individual or team who, through a novel approach, has addressed inequality in their community and/or promoted equality, diversity and inclusion within their hospice or palliative care organisation. 

The 2025 Award is now open for nominations! The winners will be announced at the Hospice UK National Conference in Liverpool in November.

What's on this page

About this award

Has a project at your hospice helped to gain an understanding of what groups you are not engaging with and why, including collecting/analysing data?

Has your hospice run a programme to diversify your workforces to be more representative of your community?  

If so, nominate them for the Improving Inclusivity Award in recognition of their success. 

This award celebrates a team or individual in a hospice who have found new ways to engage with minoritised groups in their area to drive positive change in services, based on lived experience.  

We would like to hear about work that has:

  • Engaged minority groups through public voice work to drive positive change based on lived experience.  
  • Attracted more diverse candidates to the hospice sector through innovative recruitment campaigns and practices. 
  • Leveraged data to advance workplace diversity, equality and inclusion. 
  • Broken down barriers for under-represented communities through career development programmes such as mentoring schemes
  • Improved an organisation's overall employee engagement and sense of belonging and purpose. 

This award was formerly called the Inclusivity Champion Award.

What the judges are looking for

Read our submission criteria and general guidance. We suggest applicants consider the following information when making a nomination:

How original was the work undertaken? 

  • Was it developed independently or in collaboration with others? 
  • Did the activity improve any of the areas listed above? 

What was the impact of the work? 

  • Was there a measurable improvement evidenced with data? 
  • Could improvements in diversity and inclusion be linked with better business results? 

Knowledge sharing  

  • Can this activity be shared to other hospices and palliative care organisations? 
  • Have practical learnings been captured to help others undertaking a similar journey?

Enter now

To nominate someone for the 2025 award, please complete our short online form.

The deadline for submitting entries and nominations is 5pm on Monday 8 September 2025. 

The winners will be announced at our National Conference in Liverpool from 25-27 November 2025.

Hospice UK has announced the winners of its 2024 Awards at the annual National Conference, which took place this year in Glasgow

Hospice UK Awards Entry Form

Submit your entries for this year's Hospice UK Awards.

Find out more

Previous winners

Keech Hospice Care’s learning and community team are the 2024 winners of the Improving Inclusivity Award at the Hospice UK Conference

2024 Winner: Keech Hospice Care

Keech Hospice Care’s learning and community team have taken a multi-strand approach to connecting the hospice with its highly diverse local population and removing barriers to high-quality care and support. 

The team stood out for their community connector approach to improving equity of access to quality care for South Asian communities; mentoring and support for other hospices; and collaboration with the University of Bedfordshire to offer a PhD studentship to better understand the needs of Eastern European communities in the UK.

Find out more about Keech Hospice Care
Leah from Pendleside Hospice was the 2023 Inclusivity Champion award winner

2023 Winner: Leah, Pendleside Hospice (Inclusivity Champion Award)

Leah’s collaborative project aims to raise awareness of Pendleside Hospice’s services amongst the minority ethnic community in Burnley and Pendle. This award acknowledges the vital work done to recognise and celebrate what is important to the local Asian community in marking Ramadan and the significance of Iftar. 

The Panel commented, “It was clear that the development of trust built between the hospice and the community members has contributed to an increase in patient referrals, an appointment of a hospice trustee and an increase in volunteer recruitment. Well done Leah!”

Find out more about Pendleside Hospice