Workshop: 21 March 2022, Marie Curie, Albert Embankment
Published: September 2022
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) was commissioned by Marie Curie to carry out a short study into the feasibility of a new evidence centre for palliative and end of life care (PEOLC), which would cover all age groups. SCIE conducted a rapid review of relevant literature and interviews with stakeholders involved in palliative and end of life care research and evidence dissemination to explore the case for a new centre, its potential purpose and role (the SCIE report is appended in Appendix 1).
In parallel, Professor Katherine Sleeman, Laing Galazka Chair in palliative care at the Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London has been developing a proposal for a What Works Centre for palliative care, supported by Dr Anna Dixon, Prof. Baroness Ilora Finlay and others. The development work involved conversations with key stakeholders across Government, including the Cabinet Office What Works team.
Leading on from these activities SCIE, supported by Marie Curie and with input from Katherine Sleeman, facilitated a workshop with a wider group of stakeholders to discuss the proposed concept of a PEOLC evidence centre and emerging options for its development, including the purpose of such a centre, its potential position and impact within the wider sector, and possible form and funding models.
The workshop was held at the Marie Curie head office in London on 21 March 2022 and involved a range of representatives from across the spectrum of PEOLC evidence users, generators and facilitators, as well as from existing What Works centres and potential supporters, to help shape and develop the concept at this formative stage (the attendee list can be found in Appendix 2).
The session involved short presentations from SCIE and Professor Sleeman (these are contained in Appendix 3) and facilitated group discussions. The purpose of the workshop was to:
- elicit stakeholder feedback on the idea of creating an evidence centre for PEOLC and emerging options for its development, including:
- the case for the centre’s establishment
- potential position and impact within the wider sector
- adapting best practices from similar centres
- potential organisational form, funding and governance model
- discuss next steps for developing the proposal and testing it further
- generate wider support for the proposal among sector leaders, stakeholders and potential funders.