Innovator in Care Award

The Innovator in Care Award recognises the work of an individual in a hospice or palliative care organisation who, through a novel approach, has improved the experience of people with a progressive and life threatening condition, their families and carers.

The winner of this award has been announced at the Hospice UK National Conference.

Winner - 2023

Dr Christine Mott, Acorns Hospices

After caring for a young person at end of life who was experiencing Diabetes Mellitus, Christine and her team at the hospice searched for a paediatric guideline but was unable to locate one. So, they brought together a group of organisations and endocrinologists from the UK and internationally to write a guideline.

Diabetes Mellitus is relatively common in adult palliative care, but is infrequently seen in paediatrics. This means when a patient and their family come to a paediatric hospice, clinical care staff can feel uncertain and unfamiliar with their needs.

Using the new Managing Diabetes Mellitus in Paediatric Palliative Care guideline, with its clear management recommendations, children and young people may be able to avoid the unpleasant symptoms and side effects of the medications, and to be supported in considering care options with palliative care staff who feel confident in providing these.

The team would like to dedicate this award to the memory of Lucy Watson who inspired this work.

The Awards Panel agreed that this piece of work would be hugely valuable.

They commented, “Christine and her team's work has undoubtedly made an invaluable contribution to hospice and end of life care for children and young people, the guidance will equip palliative care staff to feel confident in providing the best possible care. Their recommendations mean that children and young people with Diabetes Mellitus will be supported to live as well as possible by receiving evidenced based care. Well done Christine and team!”

What the judges were looking for

How original was the innovation?

Was it a new concept or a variation of an existing idea?
Was it developed independently or in cooperation with others?
Did the individual improve any of the areas listed in the above bullet points?

What was the impact of the innovation?

Was there a measurable benefit to users?
Could elements of the project be applied to other parts of the organisation or care processes?

Applicability

Can this innovation be applied to other hospice and palliative care organisations?

About this award

We are interested in individuals that have found new ways to:

Identify people who can benefit from hospice and palliative care.
Plan and provide care or approach a challenging care issue.

Particular value will be placed on innovations which have improved one or more of the following:

Access to care.
Treatment of troublesome symptoms.
Resolution of psychosocial and spiritual distress.
The opportunities for people to receive care in-line with cultural, religious, social or other preferences.
The opportunities for people to receive care in the place of their choice.
Bereavement outcomes.
Engagement of users in the planning, organisation and evaluation of services.

Winners of the 2022 Innovation in Care Award were Compton Care

Winners - 2022

Compton Care: The development of a dynamic and highly responsive community palliative care service in Wolverhampton

The judges were delighted to recommend Compton Care for this Innovation project award, which identified a need for a ‘Rapid Response’ community service to manage crises and prevent unnecessary acute admissions. With their inpatient service’s response to Covid, patients’ and families’ focus for care at home remained constant, requiring support day and night - this required a team to respond to changing clinical pictures.

They aimed to make community resources more responsive, assessing and managing current and urgent needs, in addition to an intervention for fixed caseloads.

Find out more about Compton Care

St Oswald’s Hospice Lymphodema Service were the 2021 winners of the Hospice UK Innovation in Care Award

Winners - 2021

The pandemic has accelerated innovation in care across the whole of the hospice sector, and St Oswald’s Hospice Lymphodema Service really stood out for us when choosing a winner.

This project extended the benefits of St Oswald’s Lymphodema Service. In March 2020, the service had to quickly pivot to provide much more domiciliary based care. To deliver this service, the hospice had to act quickly and innovatively, introducing a new volunteer role and recruiting much more additional support.

This has not only given a learning opportunity to these new and often younger volunteers, it gives patients the opportunity to share their stories with the volunteers - offering a positive impact on the potential next generation of health care workers and giving them an insight into hospice care.

We feel this innovation not only has positively impacted the community, but can be shared and replicated widely with real impact.