Social care should play a major role in planning and delivering end of life care (EoLC), according to a ground-breaking document mapping out how this can be achieved.

Published today (8th July 2010), the report, Supporting people to live and die well: a framework for social care at the end of life, is the work of an advisory group of leaders in social care co-ordinated by the National End of Life Care Programme (NEoLCP).

It maps out how social care commissioners and providers, together with those involved in training and education, can boost social care’s role in end of life care for individuals and their families.

Claire Henry, director of the NEoLCP, said: “It is time to recognise the value of social care’s unique skills and regular contact with service users still in relatively good health. The traditional barriers between the sector and health must come down so that more people receive good end of life care.”

She continued: “Too often social care staff lack the confidence or training to discuss end of life care with service users they see regularly. Yet their training in assessment, advocacy and support can ensure that care is planned in advance and that more people can be cared for and die in the setting they choose – often their own home or care home.”

The framework’s conclusions include:

• The social care workforce – from domiciliary care workers to social workers and their managers – may need training and support to recognise the skills they already have and to develop new ones
• The current changes to commissioning and delivery of social care must recognise EoLC belongs to that agenda
• EoLC must be embedded in the wider education and training changes currently taking place in social work and be reflected in the future development of training and skills for the wider social workforce
• The personalisation and re-ablement agendas offer significant opportunities for improving EoLC – although commissioners must take account of the needs of people unable to take full advantage of these approaches
• Palliative care social work should be strengthened given its vital role in specialist settings and as an educational and supportive resource in mainstream services
• Greater integration is needed across all care and support services, particularly between social and health care
• There needs to be a robust evidence base to support the development of good social care practice in EoLC.