Palliative Care: Standards

We are developing a Modern Service Framework (MSF) for Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care. An interim update has now been published in the form of a Written Ministerial Statement, accompanied by a Further Information for Interested Parties letter. The Written Ministerial Statement is available at the following link:

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-06-04/hcws88

NHS England’s National Director for Primary Care and Community Services has also written to integrated care boards (ICBs), setting out two actions that those ICBs need to take to ensure progress is made towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end-of-life care services, specifically: action 1, to produce an integrated needs assessment and understand service provision and utilisation; and action 2, to move to sustainable contracting of hospice services.

NHS England has the legal duty to annually assess the performance of each ICB each financial year and to publish a summary of the findings. This assessment assesses how well each ICB has discharged its functions. The last report was published in December 2025 for 2024/25. Future assessments will continue to consider how ICBs are discharging their statutory palliative care duties.

As we develop the MSF further, we will continue to co-design the metrics and accountability framework with people with lived experience and sector partners, and will set out further detail in the full report.