Palliative Care Matters for All: palliative care strategy - initial delivery plan 2025-2028
Accompanying the palliative care strategy 2025-30, ‘Palliative Care Matters for All,’ is an initial 3-year delivery plan (2025-28) which 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 strategy.
Delivery Governance
Delivering this plan requires collaboration and joint working with leadership, input and support from other relevant policy areas, national and local organisations and delivery partners from the NHS, social care, third sector, independent hospices, and other independent service providers. This is the first of a series of delivery plans, as not all the actions required to achieve the changes needed can be delivered simultaneously.
The strategy delivery programme is overseen by a Palliative Care Delivery Group. Membership includes key representatives from organisations and services that plan, commission and deliver general palliative care and specialist palliative care services for adults, and for children, in all places of care. The group includes the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and lived experience representatives. The delivery group will support delivery, monitor progress against agreed timelines, and oversee reporting.
The palliative care delivery group will have subgroups that support and contribute to delivering the strategy actions and outcomes. These subgroups may include:
- Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Enabling Communities group
- Palliative Care Data and Experiences group
- Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines group
- Scottish Palliative Care Learning Hub group
- National Future Care Planning group
In this strategy delivery plan, we aim to make the actions clear, measurable and deliverable. Theory of change1 modelling underpins this approach. The plan outlines measurement and monitoring of delivery along with responsibilities and governance. Organisations and delivery partners with leadership roles are highlighted.
Towards the end of the first three years, the delivery group will oversee development and publication of an updated delivery plan. This enables us to monitor progress toward
our outcomes by reviewing the delivery of individual and related actions. Actions can be revised or prioritised, and new actions added to an updated delivery plan for Years 4-5 and beyond.
The outcomes section of the strategy explains in more detail why the actions in the delivery plan matter for people of all ages with life shortening conditions and their families and carers. Terms used in this strategy and its delivery plan are the same.
Delivery plan reporting
Annual strategy delivery reports will be published detailing progress for individual actions. These will provide updates on progress to implement the actions and include any measurable changes in nationally available data and other relevant measures. This ensures delivery is flexible and dynamic.
Contact
Email: palliativecareteam@gov.scot