Adult Community Specialist Palliative Care in North West London - Update: March 2026

We know that needing palliative or end-of-life care can be an incredibly difficult and uncertain time for people and their families. Clear information, timely support and knowing where to turn can make a real difference.

This update sets out how adult community specialist palliative and end-of-life care is improving across North West London, what support is already in place, and what further changes are coming over the next two years.

Since 2021, we have been working closely with residents, families, clinicians, hospices and community groups to understand what really matters when people need specialist palliative and end‑of‑life care.

Together, we co‑developed a new model of care that is compassionate, fair and built around people’s needs. It supports the national ambition for personalised, high‑quality end‑of‑life care and reflects the priorities and experiences shared during extensive engagement and the public consultation between November 2024 and February 2025.

Thanks to additional funding secured in July 2025, we began rolling out improvements from October 2025 with an expectation all improvements will be in place by October 2027. Many people across North West London are already benefiting from better access, longer service hours and strengthened support.

This update is part of an open approach to sharing progress, and we will continue to provide regular updates as services develop.

Progress since our last update

• Continued recruitment for a larger specialist palliative care workforce to expand services including lymphoedema, increasing admissions into inpatient units and extended operating hours for community teams to 8am-8pm, 7 days a week. A number of posts have been filled already, and vacancies are advertised with a positive response and strong candidates applying for roles
• Continuing to work through the operating model  for a single 24/7 telephone advice line for north west London, with calls routed in via NHS 111, ensuring we have the right workforce and pathways to improve care coordination and access to timely, specialist advice and support for palliative care patients  
• We are continuing to work with different communities to co-design resources to support better access to services, with the aim of reducing inequalities. Draft materials have been developed and will continued to be refined with feedback from groups
• A workshop brought together partners from across services and boroughs, to work through the plans and models for the enhanced end-of-life care beds. This helped to clarify a number of operational questions and considerations to ensure these beds meet the needs of patients. Local working groups will now take this forward to continue to shortlist potential options for the location of these beds, which will be taken for local engagement before a decision is made
• St John’s hospice have been delivering information sessions for referrers as part of the rollout of the new Hospice at Home service for Hammersmith and Fulham
• In Hillingdon, where all elements of the Model of Care exist, work is ongoing to build extra capacity in teams. Hillingdon are also focusing on ensuring early identification of needs through close working with neighbourhoods and ensuring anticipatory care planning (UCP) is part of the frailty offer not just seen as relevant for end of life. This is a particular focus when considering inequalities in accessing care because early care planning is a key indicator of quality.

What are our priorities over the next 3 weeks

• Continue to develop palliative care information and guidance resources, with the design of these resources being tested in March with community groups for feedback and refinement
• Continue with recruitment processes to expand services, including interviews and onboarding new staff
• Prepare engagement plan for the enhanced EoLC bed location options in each area, to be shared at the end of March
• Work locally to continue planning for implementation of enhanced end of life care beds, identifying potential options to be engaged on locally and refined with feedback
• The Harrow lymphoedema service for non-cancer patients is due to launch in the first week of March, supporting people in clinic or at home. Further communications around this will be shared.

Where are we up to implementing new and enhanced services that are being introduced in 2026.

Our ongoing commitment

We remain firmly committed to:

• providing compassionate, personalised care for everyone who needs it
• making services easier to navigate and more consistent across North West London
• continuing open conversations with communities, patients, carers and partner organisations
• ensuring every improvement reflects what matters most to the people we serve.

We know that palliative and end-of-life care is not something people plan for, and that needs can change quickly. Support is available now, and services will continue to improve over the coming months and years. We remain committed to providing compassionate, high-quality care for everyone who needs it, and to being open and clear with patients, families and communities as this work continues.