Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure all health and care staff are adequately trained to support (a) people who are dying and (b) their families.

Individual National Health Service employers are responsible for ensuring that staff are trained and competent for the role they perform. NHS England has developed training for staff on personalised care planning for those in the last year of life, which can include the individual’s family and others, where appropriate. This allows health and care staff supporting those at the end of life and their loved ones to address any concerns and identify the appropriate services.

To ensure that health and social care workforce, including volunteers, are equipped to deliver personalised care, Health Education England host the End of life care for all e-learning programme, which includes nine modules on improving care for people at the end of life. The e-learning modules are available at the following link:

https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/end-of-life-care/