Palliative Care

(asked on 26th February 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to assist families in implementing advance care plans for relatives receiving end-of-life care.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 1st March 2018

On 5 July 2016 we published Our Commitment to you for end of life care, which set out what everyone should expect from their care at the end of life and the actions we are taking to make high quality, personalised care a reality for everyone by 2020. Our Commitment stated that everyone should have the opportunity to develop and document a personalised care plan based on what matters to them, including: advance decisions; preferences about where they would like to be cared for and would want to die; and to review and revise this plan throughout the duration of their illness.

NHS England and the Ambitions for End of life Care partnership have made available a range of resources to support commissioners to deliver advance care planning for families and patients, including an end of life care toolkit and care planning guidance. Over the last year, additional support has been made available in the form of new guidance on end of life care planning for people with dementia, as well as an online training course to support volunteers to understand what advance care planning is and how to deliver it; as well as how to assist others with advance care planning. Both resources can be found at the links below:

www.england.nhs.uk/publication/dementia-good-care-planning-information-for-primary-care-and-commissioners/

www.endoflifecareambitions.org.uk/thinking-planning-ahead-learning/

The Government commitment also set out plans to work with voluntary sector partners to raise public awareness nationally of issues around death and dying and the importance of enabling individuals to make end of life care plans in advance. NHS England contributed funding to the Dying Matters campaign in 2016/17 and also promoted Dying Matters Week via the National End of Life Care Programme Board and through the National Palliative and End of Life Care Network. In addition, in October 2017, Age UK published a booklet and animation; Let's Talk About Death and Dying, that provides information about conversations, care and choices at the end of life. It was promoted through their media channels including radio and trade press.

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