Scottish Parliament Elections 2026: Information for members

In order to make sure your engagement with political parties is balanced and your independence maintained you should reach out to all the parliamentary candidates for each of the main parties in your area.  

For example, if organising hospice visits and hustings, you should invite all your main local candidates, unless there is a clear and objective reason not to. In certain circumstances, you may decide that it is acceptable to not invite a representative from a party that the hospice decides advocates for policies that are in contravention of the hospice’s charitable purpose. However, impartiality must always be kept in mind in this decision. 

If in practice all parties are not represented each time the hospice engages with political candidates, for example if a candidate declines your invitation, this should not stop your engagement with other local candidates. 

If you would like to discuss what constitutes a clear and objective reason in more detail, please feel free to get in touch with us at policyscotland@hospiceuk.org.  

You can promote your hospice’s views on issues related to palliative and end of life care and make calls directed at all candidates and political parties, to address specific issues. For example, those set out in our manifesto asks. You can support policies advocated for by a political party, but must ensure that this is not misconstrued as support for the party itself. 

You must be careful to avoid explicitly promoting a political party or candidate, or implicitly promoting one party or candidate over another, for example by comparing the merits of different positions on a policy.   

It is very important that you remain impartial in this process, please refer to our briefing on election law, or get in touch with us at policyscotland@hospiceuk.org, if you would like more support on this issue.

Candidates will be hearing from lots of different people and organisations about what is important to them, so at this stage it's best to keep the messages simple and focus on building a relationship. 

You may find it helpful to refer to our joint Hospice UK and Scottish Hospice Leadership Group manifesto priorities.  

Whichever candidate is successfully elected, there will be time to build a more nuanced relationship and improve their understanding of the more complex challenges you may face. 

Explain that Scotland is facing a demographic crisis, and as our population ages, demand for palliative care is increasing rapidly, resulting in many Scots dying without the support they need. 

10,000 more people will need palliative care each year, by 2048 and the care they need is becoming more complex. Share any information you have on increasing need for end-of-life care or demographic changes in your area. For example, are you seeing more people with multiple conditions and complex needs?  

Explain that too many people in Scotland are spending their final weeks in hospital, not because they need or want to be there but because our health system gives them no other choice. You could share that out of £1.3 billion spent on healthcare for those in their last year of life in Scotland, a huge £1.1 billion is spent on hospital care. With 1 in 3 people in Scottish hospitals being in their last year of life. 

Highlight the vital role hospice services have in supporting adults and children to stay at home, reducing hospital stays and delayed discharges, and easing pressure on the NHS. You may want to particularly emphasise your community services and highlight that across Scotland, hospice care staff deliver 76,000 visits to people in their own homes each year.  

Share how the cost of running your services has increased recently and where this has come from (e.g. staffing costs, energy). Figures, such as the % increase in your costs, can be impactful here. You may want to particularly emphasise the impact of keeping pace with NHS pay. 

Tell your candidate about any changes to services or staffing you have had to make (or may make) as a result of rising costs. You could describe the impact that this will have on patients and families in your local area. 

Mention the Hospice UK figures that two thirds of Scottish hospices either have already made cuts or are planning to make cuts within the year, reflecting severe and unsustainable financial pressures across the hospice sector in Scotland. 

Explain the funding streams your hospice has, how much is raised each year through charitable donations compared with statutory funding through your local IJB. 

Explain that it is vital the next Scottish government delivers a long-term, sustainable funding model for hospice care. 

Mention the funding challenges that put your service, and the support your hospice offers to the wider system, at risk.