Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department provides to carers for people who are undergoing end-of-life care.

Skills for Care, our delivery partner, have developed a number of resources to support care workers working with adults at the end of their life. These resources form a framework to guide managers and workers, helping to define the additional knowledge and competences needed when supporting someone who is dying.

Social care organisations employing paid carers are required by law to ensure their teams are suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced and that they receive appropriate support, training and professional development to enable them to carry out the duties they are employed to perform.

The Care Act 2014 introduced important new rights for informal carers, including carers of people who are receiving end of life care, for the first time putting them on the same footing as the people for whom they care. They now have legal rights to an assessment of, and support for, their needs where eligible. Local authorities also have a wider duty to offer information and advice to all carers.

In addition, Quality Statement 7 in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Quality Standard on end of life care sets out that families and carers of people approaching the end of life are offered comprehensive holistic assessments in response to their changing needs and preferences, and holistic support appropriate to their current needs and preferences.