Current state of caring for family carers in UK hospices

This report summarises the state of carer assessment and support provision across the hospice sector in the UK from the Hospice UK Organisational Survey of Carer Assessment and Support (HUK-OSCAS) 2018.

The survey represents stage two of a Hospice UK consultation and survey project. Results are presented in the context of the 10 Recommendations for implementing comprehensive, person-centred assessment and support for family carers providing end of life care, generated from stage one of the project.

The 10 Recommendations are reproduced on page 4.

Compared to other healthcare service providers, the hospice sector is considered to be at the forefront regarding support for carers of patients receiving end of life care. This report shows the current state of the sector, with recommended actions for improving carer assessment and support provision within hospices.

This report is highly relevant to hospice provision, where family carers often play a pivotal role towards the end of life.

The contents will enable organisational leads and practitioners in the hospice sector to consider survey findings in relation to their own organisation’s support for carers, celebrate where they are doing well, and develop strategies to address the gaps where carer assessment and support could be improved.

The report will also be particularly relevant to commissioners of hospice services.

Higgerson J, Ewing G, Rowland C, Grande G.

Published by Hospice UK in November 2019.

This work was supported by Michael Spence, Programme Manager, NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) Greater Manchester.

The authors would like to thank Dr Sarah Russell and Dr Ros Taylor MBE from Hospice UK for their advice, comments and support. The authors would also like to thank Kay Greene, Nicola le Prevost, Rebecca Trower and Liz Webb for their guidance on the early survey drafts.

Finally, the authors wish to thank all respondents who participated in this survey.

The work was funded by Hospice UK and NIHR CLAHRC Greater Manchester.

The study was approved by the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC) for Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.