NHS West Midlands Invitation to bid for End of Life Workforce Projects

Here at NHS West Midlands we are moving forward with partners in health and social care, as well as the independent and voluntary sectors to improve the quality and consistency of End of Life Care through a comprehensive workforce programme ‘Quality End of Life Care is Everyone’s Business’.  The End of Life Workforce Programme Board is chaired by Jane Povey, Medical Director at NHS West Midlands.  The Board have had their first meeting and are still looking for a patient and carer representative to join the board. This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in making a real difference to End of Life Care in the West Midlands .

NHS West Midlands  are delighted to invite bids for the first wave of the 32 projects that comprise ‘Quality End of Life Care is Everyone’s Business’.  Projects will continue to be released over the coming weeks and will all be published by early November.

The first wave of projects which will be on the website over the coming days includes:

• Personalised care planning for people with long term conditions (project 1)
• Person Centred Advanced Care Planning for people with Dementia ( project 2)
• Core Education for Care Home Staff (project 3)
• Special Patient notes Communication System  (project 5)
• Roll out of e-learning  for End of life Care(elca) (project 6)
• Decision Tool for Ambulance Workers ( project 8)
• Improving Clinical Input to Care Homes (project 9)
• Identification and advanced care planning in people with respiratory conditions (project 13)
• Raising the Bar in End of life Training for Out of Hours Practitioners (project 18)
• End of life Choices Enhanced summary Care Record (project 20)
• Commissioning for Improved End of life Outcomes (project 23)
• Using the Navigator role to signpost End of life Services (project 28)

Please see the programme map and programme summary for more information.

Information on these projects, including how to express an interest and participate in the bidding process can be found here.  We will publish regular briefing updates on the website as well as through our networks.

This work will be a key enabler in helping us improve End of Life Care, which is both a national and regional priority.  On 25 August, Paul Bristow,  the Care Services Minister on publication of  The second Annual report on Implementation of the End of life care strategy said ‘’Good progress has been made in improving end of life care but more needs to be done to make sure everyone gets the highest quality of care in the setting of their choice” . 
 

Tom Hughes- Hallett, CEO of Marie Curie Cancer Care and Chairman of the End of life Care Implementation Board, reinforced the workforce component of this task with his following comment:

‘We cannot overestimate the impact of continuing to make strides in developing a more educated workforce. Training and Education remains vital and not just for those professions already working to give care and support people at the end of life. There are millions of people providing care to their loved ones and supporting carers more effectively will help us in responding to peoples preferences for how and where they want to be at the end of their lives’
For more information contact  Heather.Pitchford@westmidlands.nhs.uk  0121 695 2201 Mobile: 07554453137