Policy paper

2010 to 2015 government policy: end of life care

Updated 8 May 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

This is a copy of a document that stated a policy of the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The previous URL of this page was https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-care-for-people-at-the-end-of-their-life Current policies can be found at the GOV.UK policies list.

Issue

Every year, around half a million people die in England, and two thirds of them are people over 75. Most of these deaths come after a period of long term illness such as heart disease, cancer or dementia.

Although everybody has their own idea of what a ‘good death’ is, for most people it would involve being without pain, in a familiar place with close family or friends and being treated with respect. 75% of people say they would prefer to die at home. Recently, the number of people dying at home in has increased (42% in 2011), but over half of deaths still occur in hospitals.

In a 2011 survey, 43% of bereaved people said they thought that care for their loved one in the last 3 months of life was excellent or outstanding. But 24% said it was fair or poor - too many people aren’t getting high quality care at the end of their life.

Actions

Planning the best possible care

In 2012, we published the first NHS Mandate, which sets out what the NHS must achieve for patients. It states that the NHS should give the highest standards of care - not just treatment - particularly for older people and at the end of people’s lives.

In 2013, we gave responsibility for planning how to provide end of life care services to NHS England.

Evaluating the success of our approach

Since 2008, we have taken a ‘care pathway’ approach to providing end of life care. This means planning and providing the right kind of care at every stage. It involves:

• identifying people approaching the end of their life and involving them as much as they want in plans around their death - including their preferences for care
• planning, co-ordinating and providing high quality care
• managing care and support in the last days of a person’s life, at the point of death and beyond
• providing support to carers, including after the person they have cared for has died

In 2013, we will assess how successful our care pathway approach has been in providing people with the right choices for end of life care. This evaluation will show how close we are to being able to offer a formal choice for someone to die in the place where they live.

Background

In 2008, government published the national End of Life Care Strategy. Every year since then, it has published an update. The latest update reports on progress but also sets out the plan to transfer responsibility for the strategy to NHS England.