UK Government Statement on Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England

The Department of Health and Social Care have published a statement by Minister of State for Care Stephen Kinnock announcing the development of a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England, with a planned publication date of Spring 2026.  Read the statement in full here.

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

The Bill has now completed Stage 2, during which the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee (HSCSC) debated and voted on amendments.  All the transcripts and video of the four meetings of the committee can be viewed here.

You can see the Bill as it now reads following amendment here.  

Letter from health and social care organisations to SG requesting time for adequate and robust scrutiny of the Bill

SPPC have co-signed a letter to Scottish Parliament requesting time for adequate scrutiny of the Bill before the final votes in Stage 3.  Read the letter in full here.

Stage 3

The Bill has entered Stage 3 at which there is a further opportunity for MSPs and SG to propose amendments.  The amendments are voted on by the whole chamber and then the final version of the Bill is debated and voted on for a final time.  The timelines for Stage 3 are not yet published, but there are some official indications that the final debate may be late February or early March. 

Much more detail on SPPC’s work to amend the Bill can be read in the SPPC News section below.

Letter to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Following a vote of the HSCS Committee the Convenor has written a letter to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with a Disability seeking a view on the compatabiity of the Bill with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Assisted Dying in England

The report of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill House of Lords Committee is now available.

Read the report in full here.

Back to top

Marie Curie Scotland Dying in Poverty 2025 Report

Marie Curie and Loughborough University have launched a new report which explores the impact of end of life poverty and fuel poverty in Scotland in 2025.  Read the report in full here.  Read the report briefing here.

Independent Expert Panel report on palliative care services in England

The Independent Expert Panel (IEP), commissioned by the Health and Social Care Committee, has produced a report on England’s palliative and end of life care services.  Read the report in full here.

Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care: Opportunities for the NHS Ten-Year Plan - Volume II

The second volume of the Commission on Palliative and End-of-Life Care’s report has been published and analyses the 532 written responses received during its evidence-gathering process.  Read the report in full here.

Back to top

Marie Curie Research Funding: 3 Commissioned Targeted Calls

Marie Curie has launched three calls for research – all with a deadline of 5pm Friday 12th December 2025:

• Call for research to improve our understanding of the health and social care workforce supporting people in the final year of life in the UK
• Call for research to improve our understanding of the health care services accessed by people out of hours in the final year of life
• Call for research to improve our understanding of the adequacy of Urgent Community Response services for people in the final year of life in England

Find out more and apply here.

Marie Curie & Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) research funding opportunity

Following on from the refresh of the James Lind Alliance (JLA) research priorities for palliative and end of life care, Marie Curie and RCEM have partnered to foster innovative research that brings meaningful improvements to the care of patients at the end of life presenting to Emergency Departments.

£20K is available and lead applicants must be an RCEM member or fellow. The deadline to submit an application is 8am Monday 6th April 2026.  Find out more and apply here.

National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR) funding calls 

In November the NIHR launched two new grants programmes:

• Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme is inviting outline applications for research proposals that are concerned with the day-to-day practice of health and care service staff, and that have the potential to have an impact on the health or wellbeing of patients and users of health and care services. (Deadline 4 March 2026)
• NIHR Programme Development Grants (PDG) are designed to enable a research team to carry out targeted preparatory work to develop a competitive Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) funding application. (Deadline 14 January 2026)

Survey: Help shape the future of delirium research in the UK

The James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership for Delirium Research in the UK has launched a survey to gather views about research priorities relating to delirium. They are keen to hear from palliative care health and social care professionals, patients and carers. The survey takes less than 15 minutes to complete and can be found here.

Invitation to healthcare professionals to take part in a PROMPT research study

Healthcare professionals who provide care for heart failure patients who have palliative care needs are invited to take part in the PROMPT study, funded by the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). This study aims to explore views on the use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in patients with heart failure to assess their palliative care needs. 

Click here for more information and to register your interest. If you have any questions, please contact Harley.Anderson@uwe.ac.uk

Palliative and End-of-Life Care at the Deep End: Trauma-informed and inclusive approaches to palliative and end-of-life care for people experiencing marginalisation

Shaun Peter Qureshi, Churchill Fellow 2023, has published a report representing the results of his Churchill Fellowship research exploring overcoming the problem of inequity in palliative and end-of-life care access in the UK. This report is the culmination of international learning and discovery which has led to the development of ten recommendations for inclusive trauma-informed palliative care.  The report focuses in detail on the needs of people who are in prison and people experiencing homelessness 
(encompassing all forms of homelessness and being vulnerably housed).

Read the report in full here.

Back to top

State of Caring: the cost of caring in Scotland 2025

Carers Scotland has launched State of Caring: The Cost of Caring in Scotland 2025, a report of research into the lives and experiences of unpaid carers in Scotland, and across the UK.  It highlights the costs of caring: financial, health, opportunity, and longer-term costs for unpaid carers.

Back to top

Save the date: SPPC Annual Conference 2026

The SPPC Annual Conference 2026 will take place on 28 October 2026 at the John McIntyre Conference Centre in Edinburgh. Further details to follow.

SPPC input to Stage 2 of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

SPPC has worked in various ways to input into Stage 2 of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: 

• A short film about SPPC’s approach to amendments
• An explanation of SPPC’s approach and the intent of its suggested amendments
• The actual amendments lodged by Bob Doris which were considered by the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
• A summary of the outcomes of SPPC suggested amendments - those rejected and those supported by the HSCSC
• A paper identifying all the changes made at Stage 2 and considering next steps for SPPC 
• A letter from Mark Hazelwood, CEO of SPPC to Liam McArthur MSP regarding the definition of coercion used in the Assisted Dying Bill.
• SPPC have co-signed a letter to Scottish Parliament requesting time for adequate scrutiny of the Bill between Stage 2 and Stage 3. 

SPPC Annual Conference

Over 100 people attended the SPPC Annual Conference on 12 November, hearing from a range of inspiring speakers and participating in a variety of breakout sessions.  Presentation slides from the conference can be viewed on the SPPC Conference webpage, including a film of Cormac Russell’s presentation and a podcast sharing Donald Macaskill’s key reflections.

Derek Doyle Poster Prize Winners

Congratulations to Julie Wilson and Jilly Dryburgh, winners of the Derek Doyle Poster Prize 2025, as voted for by SPPC Annual Conference delegates:

Comparison (2024-25) of the outcomes and results of the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) with the family and carers of community palliative patients across Fife, being seen by Specialist Palliative Care Team Occupational Therapy.

“We have been administering this tool (CSNAT)with carers and family over the past year to give us some information on what families and carers of palliative patients in our community feel they need that we currently do not do, or which may need some improvement. This poster is a comparison of our findings from last year to those of this year.”

To Absent Friends Festival

The To Absent Friends festival took place 1-7 November, with over 30 events taking place across Scotland. A list of events from the festival is available here: To Absent Friends Festival 2025

Follow us on social media

For updates on SPPC and Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief work, follow us on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Back to top

Macmillan launches new CARE Grants Programme

Macmillan are launching the Macmillan CARE Grants Programme to support community-led projects that challenge inequities and create lasting change. This pilot programme will fund community-led projects that offer new insights and impact. Grants will focus on three key areas:

• Cultural Responsiveness: Improving the sensitivity of cancer care to diverse cultural needs.
• Shared Decision Making: Empowering people to understand and participate in their care choices.
• Dementia-Friendly Cancer Care: Enhancing support for individuals living with both cancer and dementia. 

The deadline for applications is 23 January 2026.   Find out more here. 

UK COVID-19 Inquiry Module Reports

The UK’s COVID-19 Inquiry has released Module Reports for Module 1 (Resilience and preparedness) and Module 2, 2A, 2B, 2C (Core decision-making and political governance).  Read the module reports in full here.

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow survey of practicalities of Assisted Dying legislation

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, which has a neutral stance on the principle of assisted dying, surveyed its UK Members on the practicalities of implementing the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, applicable to England and Wales, and the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill in Scotland, should they become law. Read the report in full here.

BBC Radio 3 The Essay - How Music Heals: Palliative Care

Investigating how Music Therapy works as a crucial therapeutic tool is at the heart of this series presented by author and psychotherapist Philippa Perry. In this, the second programme in the series, she talks to Dr Giorgos Tsiris at St Columba’s Hospice, who specialises in providing music therapy in palliative care and works with bereaved families.  Listen to the episode here.

Back to top

Coping with Professional Grief workshop

Organised by Hospice UK’s Compassionate Employers Team. Wednesday 14 January 202, online. Tickets £120 + VAT per person.

Find out more and book your place here.

The Bristol Centre for Grief Research and Engagement seminar series for 2025-26

• The art of grief: Creativity, loss & the imagination
  Dr Lesel Dawson, Associate Professor in Literature & Culture, University of Bristol 
  15th January 2026, 1-2pm. Register here.
• Voicing loss: Expectations & experiences of coroners’ inquests
  Professor Jessica Jacobson, Professor of Criminal Justice, Birkbeck, University of London 
  3^rd March 2026, 1-2pm. Register here.
• Understanding & optimising the benefits of bereavement support
  Dr Emily Harrop, Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow, Cardiff University 
  6th May 2026, 1-2pm. Register here.

Healthcare Conferences UK: Professional Development Conferences & Masterclasses

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. For dates and times of individual sessions, see below. Readers of this newsletter can receive a 20% discount with the code hcuk20sppc.

• Improving Adult Bereavement Care, Support & Services, Wednesday 21^st January 2026, online. To find out more or register, click here or email aman@hc-uk.org.uk.
• Caldicott Principles & Information Sharing in End of Life Care, Thursday 29th January 2026, online. Ninth National Conference. To find out more or register, click here or email aman@hc-uk.org.uk.
• A Practical Guide to Effective Non-Medical Prescribing in End of Life Care, Friday 6^th February 2026, online. To find out more or register, click here or email aman@hc-uk.org.uk.
• Controlled Drugs: Ensuring the Safer Management, Diversion & Abuse, Prescribing and Use, Thursday 19^th March 2026, The Studio, Birmingham or online. To find out more or register, click here or email aman@hc-uk.org.uk.

Grief and Bereavement in Primary Care

Organised by Good Grief. Seven webinars over three days, 28 January/11 February/25 February 2026.

Find out more and book your place here.

Conference - Palliative Care: rethinking coping, exploring hope, in the midst of conflict and change

Organised by The Global Health Academy (University of Edinburgh), PallCHASE (Palliative Care in Humanitarian Aid Situations and Emergencies) and Cairdeas International Palliative Care Trust. Saturday 7 February, George Square, Edinburgh. 

Find out more and book your place here.

Marie Curie Research into Practice Conference 2026

Organised by Marie Curie. Monday 23 to Thursday 26 February 2026, online.

Find out more and book your place here.

Advanced European Bioethics Course “Suffering, Death and Palliative Care”

Organised by the section of Healthcare Ethics, IQ Health, (Radboud university medical centre Nijmegen). Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 24-27 March 2026. More information is available here: Advanced European bioethics course ‘Suffering, Death and Palliative Care’ - IQ Health 

7th All Island Children’s Palliative Care Conference

23-24 April 2026 at the Limerick Strand Hotel. Abstract submissions are now open.

Find out more, see abstract submission guidelines, and register here.

Save the Date: SPPC Annual Conference

28 October 2026, John McIntyre Conference Centre, Edinburgh. Details to follow.]

Back to top