Overarching aim

The palliative and end of life care network provides strategic leadership and expert clinical support to integrated care boards and providers of palliative and end of life care in the East of England.

The network is focused on a number of local priorities, as well as supporting the national palliative and end of life care strategy and the NHS long term plan.

Key contacts

• Clinical lead – vacant
• Network manager – Bev Pickett

To contact the team please email: england.eoepeolcscn@nhs.net

The NHS long term plan (LTP) published in 2019 committed the NHS to introducing proactive and personalised care and support planning for everyone identified as being in their last year of life, to improve their end of life care.

It also specifically considered children and young people’s end of life care.

To support delivery of the NHS long term plan, the palliative and end of life care delivery plan for 2022 – 2025 was developed by the national palliative and end of life care team, with three key strategic priorities:

• improving access;
• improving quality; and
• improving sustainability

In addition to this, the Health and Care Act 2022 includes an amendment to clause 16 which explicitly references palliative care as a service or facility that integrated care boards have a duty to commission as they consider appropriate, as part of the local health service.

The aims of network are:

• Through clinical leadership, enabling outstanding clinical care to ensure PEoLC is personalised for all ages in all settings, focused on the three PEoLC delivery plan strategic priorities of improving access, improving quality and improving sustainability.
• Enable working across ICSs and sub-regional footprints, creating opportunities for economies of scale and improving access for patients of all ages, e.g. 24/7 access.
• To reduce health inequalities within PEoLC, improving equity of access and outcomes for underserved populations.
• Combine the experience of clinicians, multi-disciplinary working, the input of people with lived experience and clinical leadership, to improve the delivery of care to patients of all ages, delivering true integration across primary, secondary, and often tertiary care.
• Connect and collaborate with system-level networks, e.g. children and young people, dementia, frailty, long-term conditions and cancer to ensure the PEoLC strategic clinical networks work with ICSs to deliver high quality personalised PEoLC for all in all settings.

Key Documents

•  Universal principles for advance care planning 2022
• Ambitions for palliative and end of life care: A national framework for local action 2021-2026.

Useful resources

Below are a list of publications and resources on palliative and end of life care that we hope you will find useful:

• Palliative and end of life care: Statutory guidance for integrated care boards
• Specialist palliative and end of life care services – children and young people service specification: People with advanced life-threatening illnesses and their families should expect high quality, effective palliative and end of life care, whatever their condition. This document provides a children and young people service model for delivering specialist level palliative care services from identification of need through to end of life
• Specialist palliative and end of life care services – adult service specification: People with advanced life-threatening illnesses and their families should expect high quality, effective palliative and end of life care, whatever their condition. This document provides the adult service model for delivering specialist level palliative care services from identification of need through to end of life
• Nobody should die in poverty (mariecurie.org.uk)
• The Better End of Life Report 2022 (mariecurie.org.uk)
• Royal College of General Practitioners quality and outcome framework QI 2019 – Five masterclasses were developed in 2019. These are legacy resources, commissioned by NHS England which we hope will continue to be used by PEoLC staff on an ongoing basis in training, for continuing professional development purposes and for reference
• Dying well in custody charter 2018– produced by the Ambitions Partnership for Palliative and End of Life Care
• Hospice UK carers report 2018 – produced by Hospice UK
• Delivering high quality end of life care for people who have a learning disability 2017 – NHS England in association with the palliative care for people with learning disabilities network