End of life care

Common core principles and competences for end of life care
Caring for, and supporting, people approaching the end of their life is amongst the most challenging work any health and social care worker faces. It can also be amongst the most rewarding - if they have the right knowledge, skills and attitude to provide the care and support they need.

Skills for Care has worked in partnership with the National End of Life Care Programme, the Department of Health and Skills for Health to develop Common Core Principles and Competences for End of Life Care.

The document provides a basis for all health and social care workers to develop their skills - whatever their level of expertise and involvement in end of life care. It is aimed at:
 - Commissioners
 - Training providers
 - Managers and supervisors
 - Workforce planners
 - Individual workers

A wide scale consultation took place and the final full materials are now available:
common core competences and principles for health and social care workers working with adults at the end of life

The document is a framework for ensuring workers have the training, education, development and support they need and deserve. It uses case studies to highlight practical application of the competences and principles.

There are now new qualifications and units to support staff working in End of Life care: end of life care qualifications 

National end of life care qualifications - Feb 2013.pdf

Six Steps programme - A mapping tool to the national End of Life qualifications

The Six Steps Programme was originally developed in the North West as a programme of learning for care homes to develop awareness and knowledge of end of life care. It has been implemented in other settings to much acclaimed success and is now being adopted throughout the country.

Skills for Care has been working with the original developers and with St. Luke's Hospice, Plymouth to explore the links between the national end of life qualifications and the Six Steps Programme to encourage the progression of learners from the programme into further learning and development through the qualifications. 

A mapping tool has been developed to map the Six Steps programme to the core units in the national end of life qualifications. It demonstrates how learning outcomes in the Six Steps Programme can produce evidence that could be used for assessment towards core units in end of life qualifications.

End of life care qualifications and Six Steps Programme - core unit mapping tool

Free access to e-learning resources

Adult social care employers registered with the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC) can now access e-End of Life Care for All (e-ELCA). The new access in partnership with the Department of Health e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH) is a free and innovative e-learning resource that aims to enhance the training and knowledge of all those involved in delivering end-of-life care.

Employers registered with the NMDS-SC will now have access to a user registration code. The code will enable each of their individual employees to self-register for access to e-ELCA at www.e-lfh.org.uk/nmds-sc.

If you would like to register with the NMDS-SC to receive the user registration code, visit www.nmds-sc-online.org.uk.

Developing end of life care practice: A guide to workforce development to support social care and health workers to apply the common core principles and competences for end of life care.

Skills for Care has worked alongside Skills for Health and the National End of Life Care Programme to ensure that workers involved in supporting someone who is at the end of their life are properly trained to be able to undertake their work effectively and appropriately.

Each section gives an explanation of the area of work and includes important links to further information and resources. There is also a 'practice scenario' to show how the competences are connected and how they can be used to help in developing services and ensuring that workers are appropriately trained and skilled.

This guide completely replaces the 2010 A framework of National Occupational Standards to support common core principles for health and social care workers working with adults at the end of life and should be read alongside the Common core principles for health and social working with adults at the end of life care.

Developing end of life care practice