Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a 24/7 end of life care advice line.

We recognise that 24/7 advice lines can support people nearing the end of life to remain at home where appropriate and to reduce avoidable hospital admissions.

NHS England has published statutory guidance on palliative care and end of life care to support commissioners. The guidance makes specific reference to commissioners defining how their services will meet population needs 24/7 and includes a priority action for ensuring that staff, patients, and carers can access the care and advice they need, whatever the time of day.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines also recommend that adults approaching the end of life, and their carers, have access to an out of hours end of life care advice line. Although NICE guidance is not mandatory, there is an expectation that commissioners and service providers take the guidelines into account when making decisions about how to best meet the needs of their local communities.

We are developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework, which will set out evidence-based interventions to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of care. Availability of 24/7 advice will be considered as part of the interventions that can potentially achieve our goal of improving palliative care and end of life care for all.