Sector news and member updates

In collaboration with Just B, we are piloting a free one-to-one telephone support service to clinical hospice professionals. The service will run until 31st July.

After this date, anyone who needs it can still receive subsidised bereavement, resilience and emotional wellbeing support from Just ‘B’ at a cost of £30 per hour. To access the service, you just need to email wellbeing@justb.org.uk and a call will be arranged.

We are developing plans for our future workforce programming at Hospice UK and wellbeing support for staff is in the scope of this programme. We will keep our members updated on our progress.

Keep up-to-date with discussions and activity around assisted dying by bookmarking our information page for members.

The Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES) has announced a new date for their successful Being Ready Training. This training aims to help professionals address the needs of trans and gender diverse people during all stages of death, dying and bereavement.

The training will take place on 27 November 2025 from 9:00 - 17:00. You have the option to join online or in person:

• In-person training will take place at St Helena Hospice in Colchester.
• Online training will take place via Zoom.

Full details and booking forms are available on the GIRES website.

If you have any questions about the training, please get in touch with Sharon Smith at GIRES.
 

On 9 July, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) wrote to system leaders in England to invite applications to the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme. The deadline for applications is 8 August. 

This programme provides a significant opportunity for hospices to contribute to the evolution of neighbourhood health and demonstrate their value to government and local systems. We encourage you to explore whether your hospice can join an application locally and are happy to support hospices with this. 

You can find details of what we know about the programme in this briefing. For more information or any questions reach out to our Policy team or the DHSC. 

On 9 July 2025, the Department of Health NI released their Health and Social Care NI Reset Plan. This builds on the 3 Year Strategic Plan for the Health and Social Care System, published in December 2024. It also starts to shift towards a Neighbourhood approach similar to that set out in the UK Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England.

This plan proposes the creation of a new neighbourhood model for primary, community and social care, which will deliver greater levels of care in local communities, with a funding plan to support delivery from April 2026. There is also an intention to establish a new governance approach to enable the five Trusts to take shared decisions, whilst avoiding the distraction of structural change.

Disappointingly, there are no references to hospices, palliative care or end of life throughout the document. We have created a briefing document to give a more detailed overview of the Reset Plan.

Hospice UK has welcomed a commitment from Scottish Labour to deliver pay parity for hospice staff with the NHS, if there was a Labour Government following next year’s Scottish elections. Deputy Leader and health spokesperson, Jackie Baillie MSP, made the commitment on a visit to Robin House at Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) on 15 July. 

Following negotiation with Hospice UK and the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group, Labour’s commitment would include recurring funding of the £5m previously announced in the Scottish budget for hospices, alongside a further £3.6m to match the 25/26 NHS pay award and £3.3m to match the 26/27 pay award. You can read our public statement on the commitment here.

We will continue to engage with all parties to try and secure manifesto commitments in the run up to the Scottish elections.