Day 1: Monday 16 November

A creative space exploring connection and identity in palliative care through collage.

‘Collage’ comes from the French word ‘coller’, meaning ‘to stick’ or ‘to glue’ – but it also involves browsing, cutting, ripping, arranging, layering, and so much else. We will have a range of materials available so you can experiment with this technique and uncover your unique style. Will it involve images, words, or some combination of the two?  

Come to the Creative Toolkit table during your lunch break to find out! 

No expertise is need and there will be experienced facilitators on hand to provide support if you need it. 

👥: All delegates

Members of the Hospice UK Income Generation Leaders Network are invited to connect with peers from across the sector. Colleagues with an interest in income generation are also very welcome to attend. 

Chair: Kathryn Brennan, Deputy Director of Income Generation, Hospice UK and Tom Abbott, Director of Operations, St Christopher’s 

👥: Income Generation leads

Members of the Hospice UK Technology Leaders Network are invited to connect with peers from across the sector. Colleagues with an interest in technology and digital leadership are also very welcome to attend. 

Chair: Steve Thorlby-Coy, Director of Transformation, Hospice UK 

👥: Technology leads

Members of the Hospice UK Clinical Leaders Group and Medical Leaders Network are invited to connect with peers from across the sector. 

Chair: Anita Hayes, Clinical Quality Lead, Hospice UK 

👥: Clinical leads

Thinking about publishing your work but not sure where to start? Join this practical session led by Anne Menard, Research Editor at BMJ Open, which is designed especially for new and first-time authors. You’ll gain clear, accessible guidance on how to turn your ideas into a strong manuscript, understand what editors and reviewers look for, and navigate the publication process with confidence. 

Come along with your questions and leave feeling more confident about taking the next step towards publication. 

Speaker: Anne Menard, Research Editor, BMJ Open 

Chair: Melanie Taylor, Head of Information, Hospice UK

👥: All delegates

This session includes four presentations of abstracts submitted via our Call for Papers: 

• End of life marriage: how are terminally ill people safeguarded from predatory or forced marriage? Findings from a small-scale research study. - Rachael Clawson, Associate Professor, Director of Centre for Social Work, University of Nottingham
• Who gets fast-tracked? National evidence on how extending the prognostic threshold changed end-of-life benefit access. - Nicola White, Principal Research Fellow, University College London
• The role of compassionate silence in spiritual care at the end-of-life: a qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis. - Louise Worrall, Community Nurse Specialist, Weldmar Hospicecare
• Echoes and anchors: a co-designed, modular toolkit supporting bereaved carers beyond caregiving. - Amna Gugnani, Impact Officer, The Helix Centre

Chair: Sam Kyeremateng, Medical Director, St Luke's Hospice, Sheffield and Hospice UK Trustee

👥: All delegates

This session offers a dedicated, safe space for hospice CEOs to come together in a peer-led forum. Based on the feedback from last year's session, this session is running again, offering a unique opportunity for leaders to share reflections and perspective. 

Speakers:

• Kate Lee, CEO, NCVO 
• Toby Porter, CEO, Hospice UK 

Chair: Toby Porter, CEO, Hospice UK

👥: CEOs

Kindly supported by our Gold sponsors, PIB Insurance

With increasing financial pressures across the sector, hospices need to think differently about income generation. 

This practical session explores how hospices can identify and maximise the commercial assets already at their disposal and seek out new opportunities. The session will look at honest reflections on successes, setbacks and key lessons. 

From understanding different business models, to building board support, managing risk appetite and recruiting the right people, you will leave with practical insights to help future-proof your income. 

Speakers: 

• Phil Norsworthy, Charity & Not for Profit Account Manager, PIB Insurance Brokers  
• Mandy Gowers, Director of Finance and Asset Management, St Helena Hospice 
• Gerard Dunstan, Commercial Director, St Helena Hospice 
• Scott Lea, Director of Income Generation and Marketing, Treetops Hospice 

Chair: Catherine Bosworth, Director of Income Generation and Grants, Hospice UK

👥: Income Generation, CEOs and leadership, Trustees

How do policymakers know what to do? Who do they listen to and where do they get the evidence they need to make decisions around palliative and end of life care?  

In this session, Professors Murtagh and Sleeman will share their experiences of co-leading the NIHR Policy Research Unit with a direct link to the Department of Health and Social Care, reflect on the successes and challenges of the first few years and discuss their views on communicating the crucial evidence we need to improve policy and, ultimately, care.   

Speakers: 

• Professor Fliss Murtagh – Professor in Palliative Care, Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, Hull York Medical School 
• Professor Katherine Sleeman - Laing Galazka Chair in Palliative Care and Impact Lead, Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, King’s College London 

Chair: Catherine Hodge, Head of Programme Development, Hospice UK

👥: CEOs and leadership, Clinical, Community Engagement, Research  

Kindly supported by Convatec 

People living with dementia and frailty often experience trajectories that do not fit conventional models of palliative care, creating ethical, clinical and practical challenges for hospices.  

This session explores how hospice care can better respond by focusing on what matters most in the last year of life: preserving identity, comfort, connection, agency and a sense of significance. Drawing on emerging evidence and the direction of the new Frailty and Dementia Multi-Professional Specialty Framework, we will examine how expectations of hospice practice are evolving.  

The session will also address the realities of implementation, including referral pathways, workforce confidence, partnerships with care homes and neighbourhood teams, family support, and reducing inequalities in access to care.  

Throughout, discussion will be grounded in a simple but important question: would these approaches make a meaningful difference to the experience of a person living with dementia or frailty, and to those who care for them? 

Speakers: 

• Professor Catherine Walshe, Professor of Palliative Care and Director, International Observatory on End of Life Care, Lancaster University.  
• Dr Liam Gabb, NIHR Doctoral Fellow and Clinical Research Associate, Cicely Saunders Institute, King's College London. 

• Prof. Jugdeep Dhesi, President, British Geriatrics Society; Professor of Geriatric Medicine, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust 

Chair: Cathriona Sullivan, Clinical Quality Advisor, Hospice UK

👥: Clinicians, CEOs and leadership, and Commissioners 

This session includes four presentations of abstracts submitted via our Call for Papers: 

• Securing hospice capital through Section 106: a novel approach to infrastructure funding – Jon Devlin, Director of Partnerships, Community Hospice
• Collaborative preceptorship programme: a hospice and acute NHS Trust joint approach to workforce development – Kathryn Lord, End of Life Educator, St Peter’s Hospice, Bristol  
• One team: bigger impact: reshaping hospice income generation through integrated working – Charlotte Forrest, Director of Income Generation, Prospect Hospice 
• Power in partnerships: reshaping income generation through integrated working – Beverley Shaw, Business Development Manager, The Kirkwood Hospice 

Chair: Abe Staples McCall, Policy and Public Affairs Manager, Hospice UK

👥: All delegates

The session will hear from two success stories, where working together as hospices and with the NHS has resulted in properly commissioned service redesign, meeting system and population need. With a nod to The Beatles, the ‘fab four’ hospices of Staffordshire and Thames Hospice share the reality of transforming hospice care in the current landscape and fit for the future 

Speakers: 

• Dr Rachael de Caux, CEO, Thames Hospice 
• David Webster, CEO, Dougie Mac Hospice 
• David Fletcher, CEO, Katharine House Hospice 

Chair: Helen Bennett, Chief Executive Officer, Pilgrims Hospices and Hospice UK Trustee

👥: All delegates

Session delivered in collaboration with Together for Short Lives.

Children's palliative care was built around a model that many families - particularly those from minority ethnic communities, those living in poverty, and those without existing links to health services - have never fully accessed. The question is no longer only how we reach more families, but whether our current model of care is what all families want and need. 

This session moves beyond identifying inequities to exploring practical, scalable responses. It showcases what genuinely inclusive palliative care looks like - drawing on examples from hospices, community-led organisations, and wider sectors - and challenges delegates to consider what needs to change in how services are designed, communicated, and delivered to serve every child.  

Speakers will share evidence, lived experience, and honest reflections on what has and hasn't worked, and the session will generate ideas that delegates can take back to their own organisations.

Speakers:

• Lis Meates, Director of Services Development & Delivery, Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice 
• Morven MacLean, Director for People and Strategy, CHAS (Children’s Hospices Across Scotland)

Chair: Nick Carroll, CEO, Together for Short Lives

👥: All delegates

Kindly sponsored by Gold sponsors, Neutral Hospice Network 

In times of financial pressure, could going green help your hospice save money? Hear about hospices that developed practical plans, secured buy-in, and turned ambition into action - achieving measurable results for their budgets, services and the planet. 

This session goes beyond ideas and aspirations to focus on what actually works. We'll hear how Neutral Hospice Network have helped hospices cut energy costs, and how Sue Ryder in Leckhampton used the Greener Palliative Care Award to deliver meaningful environmental and financial impact. 

You'll leave with a clear plan of action for your hospice, as well as fresh ideas, greater confidence and ways to connect with other hospices wanting to turn green ambitions into tangible results. 

Speakers: 

• Jon Bumstead, Director at Neutral Home Ltd 
• Rob Winnett-Saunders, Head of Operations at Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court Hospice 
• Angela Hayes, Nurse Fellow & Project Lead at The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare 

Chair: Paul Fraser, Associate Director of Programmes, Hospice UK

👥: CEO, Finance, People, Tech, Comms, Other (Operations) 

Ethnicity and deprivation are independent predictors of lower palliative care receipt, not proxies for each other. Treating them as the same problem means services address neither. This session opens with that evidence, then moves to what it means in practice. 

Speakers: 

• Mirban Hussain, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Lead, Rotherham Hospice 

• Dr Jamilla Hussain, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Bradford Teaching Hospital and NIHR Advanced Fellow 

• Ashleigh Lois, PhD Researcher, University of Bedfordshire 

Chair: Dr Sabrina Bajwah, Clinical Reader and Honorary Consultant in Palliative Care, King's College London and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Executive Lead at the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation

👥: CEOs, Clinical, Community Engagement, Research, Data, Comms, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Join other delegates for drinks and networking.

👥: All delegates