UK Government announcement
3rd December 2025
On 24 November the Minister for Care, Stephen Kinnock MP announced that the UK Government will publish a palliative care and end of life care modern service framework in Spring 2026. He said: “This will be aligned with the ambitions set out in the recent 10-year health plan”.
He acknowledged the significant challenges currently facing the sector, including delays in early identification of palliative care needs, workforce challenges and gaps in provision that have led to a postcode lottery for patients and their families.
“We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life, and we recognise that access to high-quality, personalised palliative care and end-of-life care can make all the difference to patients and their loved ones”.
Commenting on the announcement, Dr Peter May, health economist at the Cicely Saunders Institute said:
“It’s encouraging to hear that the Government is taking steps to improve palliative and end-of-life care. Our research conducted in 2025 shows that both hospital- and home-based palliative care in England are highly cost-effective, improving outcomes and saving hundreds of thousands of hospital bed days. But there remains huge room for further gains – only half of people in England with palliative care needs currently receive it, and those who do receive palliative care often do so too late to maximise benefit.
“The Government plan to look at earlier identification of need, out-of-hours support and proactive home-based interventions is aligned with this evidence and has the potential to be ‘win, win’ for patients, families and the NHS.”