Website of the Department of Health

Education and support for district nurses

• Evaluation of the Department of Health programme to train district nurses in palliative care
• Download Conference report March 2004: Education and support for district nurses in the principles and practice of palliative care (PDF, 28K)
• Download June 2004 report on initiatives funded under this programme (PDF, 23K)

Hospice and palliative care

• Evaluation of the Department of Health programme to train district nurses in palliative care
• 8 June 2007: National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) and the NHS End of Life Care Programme: examples of innovative practice to help care homes learn from each other’s practice to improve end of life care (Building on firm foundations) (opens new window)
• Government response to the House of Commons Health Committee report on palliative care
• Q and A: Hospice funding issues

Other useful/recent documents

• Better Care, Better Lives (strategy covering palliative care for children)
• The NHS in England: the operating framework for 2008/9
• The NHS in England: operating framework for 2007-08
• Building on the best: Choice, responsiveness and equity in the NHS
• Marie Curie Cancer Care given further funding to deliver end of life care – (press release, July 2008) (opens new window)
• National funding for local hospices (press release, April 2007) (opens new window)

Links to relevant websites

NHS

• End of Life Care Programme (opens new window)

NICE guidance

• NICE guidelines on supportive and palliative care (opens new window)

National service frameworks (NSFs)

NSFs set national standards and identify key interventions for a defined service or care group. They also put strategies in place to support implementation, establish ways to ensure progress within an agreed timescale and help to raise quality and decrease variations in service. A number of NSFs include guidance on end of life care.

• Long term conditions
• Long-term conditions: Good practice guide - palliative care
• National Service Framework for Renal Services - Part Two: Chronic kidney disease, acute renal failure and end of life care

Older documents

Please note: the contents of these documents may have been superseded by subsequent policy developments.

• Download 2004 conference report: Education and support for district nurses in the principles and practice of palliative care (PDF, 28K)
• Download event evaluation report, June 2004: Celebrating the success of the programme - Education and support for district and community nurses in the principles and practice of palliative care (PDF, 23K)
• The nursing contribution to cancer care
• Download Palliative care investment plans: core messages from a review by a subgroup of the National Partnership for Palliative Care, April 2003 (PDF, 26K)
• Planning and funding specialist palliative care provision 2003/04-2005/06
• NHS cancer plan: education and support for district and community nurses in the principles and practice of palliative care education initiatives funded under this programme, July 2001
• NHS cancer plan: education and support for district and community nurses in the principles and practice of palliative care, April 2001
• Information for the palliative care sector
• Download report on the implications of Agenda for Change on voluntary sector hospices (PDF, 190K)
• Help the Hospices: Agenda for Change toolkit (opens new window)
• NICE supportive and palliative care pages (opens new window)
• NOF palliative care pages (opens new window)
• The NHS cancer plan sharing our practice