Campaigning for Better End of Life Care

NCPC is part of a coalition of charities that is campaigning for better end of life care, along with:

Cicely Saunders International, Hospice UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, the Motor Neurone Disease Association, and Sue Ryder. 

General Election 2015

We were recognised as a coalition as one of four “powerful pre-election campaigns” in an article by The Guardian.

Before the General Election, we co-produced a joint briefing for politicians in all political parties, advocating for parties to:

·         make a commitment to introduce 24/7 care, advice and support for terminally ill people and their families, wherever they are;

·         make social care free and fast for terminally ill people and their families;

·         accelerate co-ordination between services;

·         increase the proportion of the medical research budget dedicated to developing better ways of caring for terminally ill people and their families;

·         improve data collection to improve care.

In advance of the 2015 General Election, all five UK-wide political parties (the Conservatives, Green Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats and UKIP) included commitments to improving end of life care in their manifestos.

Campaigning in the new Parliament

NCPC, as part of the coalition of charities, is continuing to campaign for better end of life care. Over the coming months there will be a number of opportunities for us to campaign for the Government to take action for improving end of life care:

Responses to the Review of Choice in End of Life Care

The government and NHS England will both be responding to ‘What’s important to me’, the report from the national review of choice in end of life care. The report included recommendations for:

  • 24/7 end of life care for people being cared for outside hospital;
  • a clear policy to make access to social care for people at the end of life fast and free;
  • 100% coverage of Electronic Palliative Care Co-ordination Systems (EPaCCS) in England, and a care coordinator for people in need of end of life care;
  • further research into palliative and end of life care to provide a richer evidence base for key parts of the report’s advice

We await the Government’s response to these recommendations and will offer to work with ministers to act on them.

We also expect the Government to respond to the report from the Health Committee Inquiry into End of Life Care, which contained several recommendations including free social care at the end of life.

Comprehensive Spending Review 

The Government will carry out a Comprehensive Spending Review to determine the funding it will allocate to different departments, and will announce this on 25th November 2015. As a coalition, we are asking the Government to commit in this review to spending an additional £130million on end of life care, by the end of this Parliament.

For more information on our campaigning, please contact policy@ncpc.org.uk.