Morning, Wednesday, 2nd September 2026
Online
This conference will examine the future for palliative and end of life care policy in England. It will bring policymakers and stakeholders together to assess practical next steps for achieving consistent commissioning and sustainable provision across integrated care boards.
The agenda will examine issues raised in the National Audit Office’s report on The financial sustainability of England’s adult hospice sector. In this context, areas for discussion include options for standardising funding frameworks and improving understanding of current and future demand for services. The Government’s planned shift towards community-based care will be considered, including approaches to enabling delivery of specialist palliative care to service users in their usual place of residence. Delegates will consider implications for hospital capacity, discharge pathways, care home support, and how to effectively equip community services to meet growing demand.
With ongoing stakeholder concerns regarding bed losses and service cuts - and research recently published by Marie Curie indicating that nearly one in three people are dying with unaddressed symptoms and inadequate support from primary care - sessions will explore approaches to simplifying complex and fragmented pathways to enable easy access and allow patients and families to plan ahead effectively.
Long-term planning, alignment with the 10 Year Health Plan & end of life services
Discussion will also focus on wider strategic priorities for aligning future service development with the 10 Year Health Plan, including considerations for the development and implementation of the Government’s forthcoming Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework, and strategy for addressing issues such as equity of access, workforce capability, sustainable funding, and enabling culturally competent provision.
Following the Government’s interim update on the Modern Service Framework in June, delegates will assess priorities ahead of its publication in autumn 2026, including reducing unwarranted variation and inequalities in access, supporting earlier identification of palliative care needs, strengthening outcome measurement and accountability, and progressing strategic commissioning arrangements and sustainable contracting models for hospices and other providers.
The role of system partners in embedding palliative and end‑of‑life care within recovery pathways, neighbourhood health models, and long‑term NHS planning will be assessed - including local authorities, voluntary and community sector organisations, primary care networks, and acute providers.
In light of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill not progressing in time, it will be an opportunity to assess implications for long-term service planning and what this means for palliative and end of life care services moving forward. Exploring potential future approaches to assisted dying policy, we expect discussion on questions around public confidence, safeguarding, informed choice, workforce training, ethical decision-making, and the investment and access to high-quality palliative care needed to ensure genuine choice at the end of life.
Quality, equity, access & workforce needs
Delegates will also examine key issues in relation to consistency, quality and accessibility of care, considering stakeholder concerns around variation in service provision. Discussion will focus on priorities for improving data collection and interoperability to support population-level planning, and utilisation of system dashboards for identifying disparities affecting underserved and marginalised groups, monitoring outcomes and patient experience, and driving service improvement.
Workforce development and skills needs to enable a shift towards proactive community care will be assessed, including approaches to strengthening district nursing capacity, expanding end of life training across health and social care, and embedding hospice professionals within multidisciplinary neighbourhood teams to support high-quality, culturally competent and person-centred care.
Personalised care delivery, innovation & technology
Further discussion will focus on advancing person-centred models of care, with emphasis on anticipatory planning, shared decision-making, and enhancing support for unpaid carers and families, including access to bereavement services and round-the-clock advice lines.
Ways forward for developing and rolling out innovative models of care will be considered, looking into how artificial intelligence, data-driven tools and emerging technologies could support earlier identification of demand, target interventions and reduce crisis admissions, as well as the role of virtual wards and other service models in improving co-ordination and reducing hospital admissions. The conference will also consider next steps for the use of smart technologies - including remote monitoring and virtual reality - to support quality of life for people receiving palliative care.
All delegates will be able to contribute to the output of the conference, which will be shared with parliamentary, ministerial, departmental and regulatory offices, and more widely. This includes the full proceedings and additional articles submitted by delegates.
