The Palliative and End-of-Life Care Conference 2027
Previous Supporters Include
Overview
Palliative and end-of-life care is facing growing demand alongside significant pressures on services, with increasing recognition of the need to provide more accessible and person-centred support across hospitals, community services, hospices, primary care and social care. While there has been continued focus on improving the quality-of-care people receive towards the end of life, challenges remain in ensuring people can access the right support at the right time, particularly as demand increases and inequalities in access persist.
- England hospices provided care to 270,000 adults in 2024-25 (Hospice UK, 2026)
- Only 7 out of 42 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England maintain a dedicated 24/7 single point of access telephone line for patients and carers (Marie Curie, Written Evidence Health Bill, 2026)
- Around 56% of total healthcare spending for patients in their final year of life goes toward emergency hospital care (Fixing Palliative and End of Life Care, Marie Curie, 2026)
Agenda
Registration
Chair’s Opening Remarks
Keynote: The Future of Palliative and End-of-Life Care
- Examining the key challenges facing palliative and end-of-life care across England and what needs to change to improve access and quality
- Considering how palliative and end-of-life care can become more integrated across hospitals, primary care, community services, hospices and social care
- Exploring how the sector can respond to rising demand and inequalities in access to care
- Discussing the key factors in creating a person-centred approach to palliative and end-of-life care
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, Palliative and End-of-Life Care Commission (invited)
Keynote: Transitioning Palliative and End-of-Life Care to the Community
- Examining what effective home-based palliative care needs to provide as people’s conditions deteriorate, including access to medication and equipment and support for families and carers
- Exploring how advance care planning and early intervention can help prevent crises and enable people to remain at home when this is their preference
- Considering how community services can provide the continuity and out-of-hours support needed to respond to changing needs without defaulting to hospital admission
- Identifying lessons from hospice-at-home and community palliative care models that can be applied to improve patient experience and reduce avoidable hospital use
Sam Royston, Executive Director of Research and Policy, Marie Curie (CONFIRMED)
Case Study: Tackling Inequity in Palliative and End of Life Care
- Outlining the common barriers that prevent people from accessing and benefiting from palliative and end-of-life care, including communication challenges, cultural insensitivity, low health literacy and mistrust
- Exploring how services can provide more sensitive and accessible care that responds to the different needs and circumstances of patients and families
- Considering how socioeconomic disadvantage and regional inequality determines unequal access to health
- Examining how health and community services can use data and patient experience to identify unmet need and reduce inequality in palliative and end-of-life care
Senior Representative, Sue Ryder (invited)
Questions and Answers
Breakout Networking
This session invites attendees to connect and share strategies for integrating palliative care into care settings. Participants can engage in small-group discussions to exchange practical tools, identify partnership opportunities and explore ways to strengthen continuity of care across the patient journey
Comfort Break
Keynote: Building the Palliative Care Workforce for Care at Home
- Examining the growing role of community and district nurses in delivering palliative and end-of-life care at home and what increasing complexity means for their workload and skills
- Exploring how services can develop the workforce through clearer roles, appropriate caseloads, specialist palliative care support, clinical supervision and access to education and training
- Considering how palliative care teams can work together to give community practitioners the clinical support to manage deterioration and complex symptoms
- Outlining approaches to recruitment and retention that can build a workforce capable of supporting the shift towards community-based palliative care
Annette Alcock, Director of Programmes, Hospice UK (invited)
Case Study: Advance Care Planning and the Legal Framework for ADRTs and Lasting Powers of Attorney
- Discussing the different legal frameworks available to people planning for future treatment and care, including ADRTs and Health and Welfare LPAs
- Exploring how advance decisions, LPAs, advance statements and clinician-led documents such as DNACPR and ReSPECT interact in practice
- Challenging common misconceptions around next of kin, including who can and cannot make treatment decisions when someone loses capacity
- Examining what healthcare professionals need to know to identify, interpret and respect legally binding advance decisions and appointed decision-makers
Usha Grieve, Director of Partnerships and Services, Compassion in Dying (CONFIRMED)
Case Study: Supporting People to Die Well at Home
- Examining what people and families need from community palliative care to feel safe, supported and able to remain at home as needs become more complex
- Exploring how services can support family carers with practical care, symptom management, respite, emotional support and coordination, without placing responsibility for managing the system on families themselves
- Considering how community teams can provide continuity, rapid response and access to specialist expertise when people’s needs change, helping to prevent avoidable crises and hospital admissions
- Outlining learning from hospice-at-home and community models about designing care around the whole household, including how services can respond to financial, social and geographical barriers to receiving care at home
Professor Clare Gardiner, Professor of Palliative Care, University of Sheffield (CONFIRMED)
Questions and Answers
Chair’s Closing Remarks
Conference Close
Get in Touch
2026 Speakers
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
Commission on Palliative and End-of-Life Care
Dr Sam Royston
Executive Director of Research and Policy
Marie Curie
Katie Reade
Head of Policy and Public Affairs
Hospice UK
Bianca Neumann
Head of Bereavement
Sue Ryder
Testimonials
This was a great event to hear relevant and engaging speakers and how this can be applied and considered to practice
The speakers the content and the platform accessibility… The content was up to the minute and just what we should talking about
There was a wealth of speakers who shared their experience and examples of good practice in some very relevant topics. It has definitely given me some food for thought and will take back some of the discussions into my own organisation
An excellent conference with presenters with a wide range of knowledge and experience in this challenging field, highlighting the need to further develop accessible services to ensure equity for people requiring palliative and end of life care
Why You Should Attend
✓ Hear a diverse group of speakers lend their expertise and experience on palliative care
✓ Gain insights from policymakers and those at the forefront of palliative care
✓ Get knowledge on providing the best care for patients from case studies
✓ Gain 4 hours of CPD points towards your yearly total
Who Should Attend
| Job Title Examples | Organisation Type Examples |
| Nurses | Charities |
| Doctors | NHS Foundation Trusts |
| Clinical Directors | Hospices |
| Director of Policy | Care Homes |
| Medical Directors | Children Hospitals |
| Consultants | Research Centres |
Pricing Options
PRIVATE SECTOR
Your delegate place at this leading conference gives you: Full access to the conference; E-guide; Networking opportunities during the day; Access to presentations post conference; 8 CPD Points.
PUBLIC SECTOR
Your delegate place at this leading conference gives you: Full access to the conference; E-guide; Networking opportunities during the day; Access to presentations post conference; 8 CPD Points.
VOLUNTARY SECTOR
Your delegate place at this leading conference gives you: Full access to the conference; E-guide; Networking opportunities during the day; Access to presentations post conference; 8 CPD Points.
Support and Information
Some of the issues explored in this programme may be difficult or personally relevant. If you have been affected by the subject matter, specialist organisations are available that may be able to provide information, advice and support. View support and advice.
Please note that we are a professional conference and learning provider and are not a crisis or specialist support service.
Sponsorship
Raise Your Profile, Showcase Your Solutions, Generate New Business
If your products, services, and solutions can support our audiences in their roles, and you want to make connections and generate new business with key stakeholders, decision makers, and influencers, then please contact us HERE
IMPORTANT: There are only a small number of sponsorship opportunities available to ensure maximum exposure and ROI – contact us today to secure your place.
Virtual vs F2F
Whilst F2F provide better options for networking, there are many distinct advantages of sponsoring our online conferences including:
- Wider geographical reach of delegates and a different audience who prefer online to f2f
- Lower sponsorship package costs
- No travel/accommodation
- Less time out of the office
- No stand materials required (lower costs)
- 1 of only 2 sponsors involved – less competition on the day
- Prime speaking slot in the morning of the conference including Q&A – less distractions and easier for delegates to hear/absorb information
- Receive all delegate data after the conference to follow-up directly with those who attend and don’t attend (small % but still key stakeholders)
- Ongoing exposure via OnDemand access
To find out more and discuss your specific objectives, please contact us below:
