Did you know... Half of all countries do not have access to hospice and palliative care

What we do in the UK

Our vision is that everyone at the end of life has access to the best possible care – we offer services to support hospice and palliative care professionals as they support their patients.

Intelligence hub

Developing from the Hospice information service, which was run in partnership with St Christopher’s Hospice, we are working on creating a new Intelligence hub. The hub will pull together intelligence to support the wider work of Help the Hospices and our members, and act as a central source of information on hospices and hospice care.

The hub:

provides an enquiry service for professionals and the public
produces an e-newsletter to keep hospice and palliative care professionals up to date
publishes the annual directory of hospice and palliative care services.

Championing the cause

We champion the cause of hospice care in:

Westminster
Whitehall
the media.

We work to make sure that policy makers hear hospices’ views and concerns, and to influence national debates on end of life and palliative care.

We also:

coordinate national campaigns
connect supporters with local hospices
help hospices to raise the funds they need to keep running their services.

Opportunities for professional development

One of the founding visions of Help the Hospices was to support education and training. We offer a comprehensive range of education and training courses for professionals working in palliative care, which includes subjects as varied as health and safety and good governance. Our most recent projects are:

Masters in Hospice Leadership, offered in partnership with Lancaster University Management School and the International Observatory on End of Life Care
Postgraduate Certificate: Working with Bereaved Adults, offered in partnership with Sir Michael Sobell House and St Christopher's Hospice, and validated by Middlesex University.

Supporting hospices and individuals

We provide a range of grants for individuals and hospices. These grants can be for anything from helping towards paying for a professional qualification to funding for special projects to enlarge and develop hospice services. We also offer our support and expertise to help hospices manage projects and evaluate them.

High quality care

Our quality and standards work helps formalise the sharing of good practice and ideas among hospices. We also produce a range of quality tools and support quality improvement processes in hospices.

Our special projects help hospices to fund the development of new and innovative services. This has a direct impact on hospice care and how it is delivered in the UK.