Hospice Clinical Workforce Survey 2023

To help recruit and retain staff, Farleigh hospice has used a creative approach to develop new roles and provide career progression

Hospice UK is conducting a clinical workforce survey in November 2023 across all hospices. 

What's on this page

The aim of the survey

The aim of the survey is to:

  • To create a comprehensive picture of the hospice clinical workforce across the UK.
  • To provide comparative data for participating hospices to help local workforce planning.

Where it is possible, we plan to provide comparative data between your hospice and other similar hospices that preserves anonymity to support local workforce planning (as shown below).

The planned clinical workforce measures include Comparative?
Nursing skill mix in community and/or inpatient and/or day hospice (outpatient) ✓
Establishment fill for nursing, allied health professionals and doctors. Vacancies in specific roles ✓
Age, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, carer status ✓
Turnover and stability indicators ✓
Length of time to recruit posts ✓
Staff sickness rates ✓
How hospices are interfacing with the NHS Agenda for change  
Types of staff benefits  
How hospices are supporting the development of clinical career  
Staff supervision and support  
Qualitative information about local innovations and developments in clinical workforce  

Additional measures will provide further insights nationally and regionally. We are also looking to identify innovations and developments for clinical workforce to share widely.

two nurses talking in a hospital hallway

“We need this clinical workforce data to enable us to plan our future workforce. It will be useful to compare with other hospices and understand how we can continue to attract the experience we need for the future.”   

Laura Hugman, Clinical Team Manager
Paul Sartori Hospice

How can your hospice take part?

  • Hospice UK will contact clinical leads from the Executive Clinical Leads in Hospice and Palliative Care (ECLiHP) forum when the survey is open. These leads will act as our primary point of contact for each hospice for this survey. If you are not already a member of the wider network please contact us
  • The data for the survey will be collected online through forms linked to from this page. Clinical leads will be notified when the links are live on the page, once the survey is open.
  • The survey launches on 14th November 2023. We will confirm the survey is open on this date by email to the lead contact at each hospice. 
  • Clinical leads will likely have to work with colleagues at their hospices including data analysts and HR teams to help them gather and input their data. The data collection approach allows for clinical leads to delegate specific forms to others within their hospice.
  • A Q&A fact sheet, list of definitions and spreadsheets will be available to support you to complete the survey closer to the launch date. 
  • We plan to publish the results of the analyses in February 2024.

What can you do now to prepare for the survey?

  • Start speaking to your colleagues now to prepare for the survey’s arrival. Let them know it is coming, and that the data collection approach will allow for clinical leads to delegate specific forms to others within their hospice.
  •  Sign up to the ECLHiP bulletin to get updates about the survey and receive information when it is launched.

Contact us

We are here to help and answer any questions.

Contact the team if you would like support

Two nurses in full PPE outside a building

Clinical and care support

Access our support and resources to promote clinical excellence and ensure high quality hospice care.

Find out more