Serving as a trustee for a hospice organisation is different in many ways from serving as a trustee for other types of charities. Our Trustee Essentials sessions are specifically aimed at addressing these distinctions.
These virtual sessions provide valuable context to help trustees gain a clearer understanding of:
Hospice UK's role
how we work alongside local hospices
our broader involvement within the sector.
During each session, trustees have the opportunity to ask questions to our speakers and engage in meaningful discussions with their peers.
How long is each session?
We know that trustees often have competing commitments, so each Trustee Essentials session is between 20-30 minutes long. They aim to give an overview of each topic and introduce you to key contacts at Hospice UK.
Who can attend?
In order to receive calendar invites to Trustee Essentials sessions, you must be a member of our Trustee Network.
This network is open to any trustee from a Hospice UK member organisation, enabling people to come together to discuss the latest best practice in hospice governance.
Catch up on past sessions
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We ran our first Trustee Essentials series in 2025. If you missed any of the sessions or would like a recap, you can access the recordings and slidesets below.
This session gave an introduction to how Hospice UK supports hospices and what resources are available to trustees.
Speakers:
Toby Porter, CEO, Hospice UK
Nikki Vasco, Head of Membership Engagement, Hospice UK
There are different health and care systems across the UK and trustees need to understand how hospices operate within this setting. This session gave a helpful overview of the system in each nation. It demonstrated the importance of regulation and the role trustees play in it.
Speaker: Anita Hayes, Clinical Quality Lead, Hospice UK
Relationships with health boards (e.g. ICBs, Partnership Boards etc) are key to the running and funding of a hospice. This session explained the different partnerships that exist and how hospices have approached these relationships.
Speaker: Annette Alcock, Director of Programmes, Hospice UK
In this session we explored the purpose and value of Hospice UK's data collection and benchmarking programmes. This area helps hospice boards see where they stand within the industry average and identify key areas of work.
Speakers:
Craig Duncan, Chief Operating Officer, Hospice UK
Annette Alcock, Director of Programmes, Hospice UK
This session gave new trustees an idea of our national campaigning work, how we work with politicians, and the impact of recent campaigns.
It looked at the collaborative work between national and local hospices and demonstrated how Hospice UK supports local media work as well as how local media feeds into the wider picture.
Speakers:
Molly Evans, Senior Media and Campaign Manager, Hospice UK
Katie Reade, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Hospice UK
