Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to research by Cardiff University’s Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre, Public attitudes to death and dying in the UK, published on 2 November 2021, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding in that report that only 8 per cent of people in their last few years of life have talked to their doctors or nurses about their end of life care wishes; and what steps he is taking to ensure that people with a terminal illness are given the opportunity to discuss their end of life care preferences with a healthcare professional.

We recognise that high quality palliative and end of life care should include the opportunity for individuals to discuss their wishes and preferences so that these can be taken fully into account in the provision of their future care, also known as advance care planning.

Resources available to support healthcare professionals in engaging people in advance care planning includes guidelines and a quality statement from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), a specific module within the End of Life Care for All e-learning training programme hosted by Health Education England. Advice is also available on NHS.UK at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/end-of-life-care/why-plan-ahead/

NHS England and NHS Improvement will be publishing universal principles in spring 2022, to facilitate a consistent national approach in advance care planning in England. The principles will focus on the importance of providing opportunities for a person and their family or carers to engage in meaningful discussions, led by the person concerned, which consider that person’s priorities and preferences when they are nearing the end of life.