Palliative Care Matters for All: palliative care strategy - initial delivery plan 2025-2028

Introduction

The Scottish Government strategy, Palliative Care Matters for All (2025-30), published alongside this delivery plan, highlights the changes needed to improve experiences of people of all ages with life shortening conditions and their families and carers.

This delivery plan sets out how the Scottish Government will work with those who plan and deliver palliative care in Scotland, and in partnership with people of all ages who have life shortening conditions, their families, carers and communities, to deliver the changes outlined in our palliative care strategy.

This strategy has two overarching aims.

Enabling people and communities

Scotland is a place where people of all ages and their communities can help and support each other to live as well as possible with life shortening conditions, dying, death and bereavement.

Strengthening palliative care

People of all ages with life shortening conditions and their families and carers receive palliative care, care around dying and bereavement support based on what matters to them.

Palliative care focuses on what matters to each person and quality of life for them and their families and carers. Changes in health, caring for others, dying, death and bereavement affect us all at some time in our lives.

Palliative care is holistic care of a person of any age living with life shortening conditions and their family and carers that focuses on what matters to them.

Palliative care helps people with pain and other symptoms, emotional, psychological, social or financial problems, and spiritual wellbeing regardless of faith or belief.

Palliative care can start from around the time of diagnosis.

Care around dying is holistic care of a person of any age who is dying that focuses on their comfort and includes the people close to them.

Care around dying is given in the last hours, days or a few weeks of a person’s life and includes care after their death.

Care around dying involves and supports family, carers and other people close to the person throughout this time and when they are bereaved.

Over 90% of people who die in Scotland each year have health conditions that mean they could benefit from palliative care. This requires us to plan and deliver palliative care earlier and more effectively to meet the increasing and varied needs of people of all ages, their families and carers.