The Inside Scoop: Finding a Way Forward

At the end of November, three members of the Collaborative Chief Executive Office attended the annual Hospice UK National Conference in Glasgow. This event saw hundreds of delegates from across the UK come together for three, fairly intense days.  The discussion was about ‘Finding a Way Forward: A problem shared is a problem halved’. It is undoubtedly a difficult economic climate for hospices at the moment as well as for the communities they care for. There was much discussion around the need to work ever more in partnership and collaboration with others, to make more use of data and business intelligence tools to inform work programmes and how to empower communities to care and support one another when approaching the end of life.
 
Sharon Batty, Director of Income Generation and Marketing, learned about a worrying national downward trend in income from gifts in wills and charity shops. Thankfully, this has so far not been the case for us and our shops are bouncing back well from the pandemic lockdowns. Sharon was really interested to hear how some hospices have been using their fundraising data to provide better experiences for those generous people that donate to keep hospice care available. She was also inspired to think about new ways our staff can share their extensive knowledge to improve the local community’s ‘end of life literacy’. We are really happy to have recently launched our Ducks in a Row booklets, which is a good first step towards helping people prepare and plan for the end of life. If you have yet to make a will why not book on to our next Free Wills Week?
 
It was Amanda Darley’s, Director of Estates and Facilities, third conference and she continued to be amazed at the passion within the hospice sector, which was clearly evident from the presentations and discussions amongst attendees. Whilst hospices have always been known for being innovative organisations, which is part of the success of the hospice movement as a whole, one of the key messages that stood out to Amanda at conference was the significant increase in the pace of change over the previous years with the likes of Google and Amazon being used as examples of this and the suggestion that what we did yesterday is different to today and tomorrow will be different again. Therefore, in order for hospices to be sustainable organisations, we need to ensure our technology and workforce are equipped to keep up with that pace. We need to be brave and think outside the box whilst being agile enough to try things that might fail, learning and adapting as we go. The future will be a challenge for our Hospice but with challenge comes opportunities and I have every confidence we are more than capable of realising these.
 
Joanne Schofield, Director of Clinical Services, didn’t just listen at the conference she participated in a roundtable discussion on the ethical considerations when caring for patients living with addictions.  Joanne led an enthusiastic debate and shared ideas with clinical leads from across the UK. Joanne, along with many fellow delegates, was shocked to hear statistics of the numbers of people in the UK dying in poverty.  She will use the research to influence the Hospice’s work around health. Joanne was able to find out about innovative new ways of working by spending time viewing the 200 poster presentations, as well as chatting to other delegates at the networking sessions.
 
Whilst they didn’t get much chance to explore Glasgow, all three enjoyed visiting the city and meeting up with friends and colleagues from other hospices and partner organisations.