Senedd Cross Party Group on Hospice and Palliative Care

Minutes (Annual General Meeting)

9 July 2025

Attendance:

Mark Isherwood MS (Chair)	Mabon ap Gwynfor MS
Ryland Doyle on behalf of Mike Hedges MS	Jane Dodds MS
Matthew Brindley, Hospice UK (Secretary)	Liz Booyse, City Hospice
Grant Usmar, Hospice of the Valleys	Andy Goldsmith, Ty Gobaith/Hope House
Andrea Powell, Cruse Bereavement Care	Carol Davies, HDA
Huw Owen, Ty Gobaith/Ty Hafan	Darren Rutland, HDA
Gareth Jones, St David's Hospice	Jacqueline Pottle, NHS Wales Performance & Improvement
Jen Mills, MND Association	Jodie Beck, Hospice UK
Laura Hugman, Paul Sartori Hospice	Lee Barnett, Sandy Bear
Oscar Din, Pancreatic Cancer UK	Thea Brain, Care Forum Wales
Lynda Kenway, NHS Wales Performance & Improvement	Lauren Emberton, Nightingale House Hospice
Tracy Jones, Ty Hafan	Steven Crane-Jenkins, BASW Cymru
Zoe Greer, Hospice UK	Dr Sarah Davies, Consultant Physician, BCUHB
Dr Victoria Wheatley, Palliative Care Consultant, Hywel Dda UHB	Tomos Evans, Marie Curie
Natasha Davies, Marie Curie

Apologies:

Darren Millar MS	Janet Finch-Saunders MS
Peredur Owen Griffiths MS	Rhun ap Iorwerth MS
Heather Ferguson, Age Cymru	Jon Antoniazzi
Peter Fox MS

Welcome, introduction and apologies

Mark Isherwood welcomed members and speakers to the CPG meeting looking at access to palliative care in remote and rural areas, and providing an update on the work of the National Palliative and End of Life Care Programme.

He informed members that Peter Fox, Chair of the Senedd Health and Social Care Committee, could not attend as he's recovering from an operation, but his item on the Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will be rescheduled for a future meeting. 

Minutes of previous meeting & matters arising

Minutes from the previous CPG on Hospice and Palliative Care meeting were confirmed by Liz Booyse and seconded by Tracy Jones.

Annual General Meeting

Mark Isherwood MS stepped down as Chair. 

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS nominated Mark Isherwood to be re-elected to Chair (vote via proxy) and was seconded by Jane Dodds MS. 

Mark Isherwood was duly elected as Chair of the CPG on Hospice and Palliative Care for 2025/26.

Matthew Brindley stepped down as Secretary. Liz Booyse nominated Matthew Brindley on behalf of Hospice UK to provide Secretariat and was seconded by Andy Goldsmith.

Matthew Brindley elected as Secretary for 2025/26.

Improving palliative care in remote, rural and island communities

Mark Isherwood welcomed Zoe Greer from Hospice UK to the CPG to talk about their report on improving palliative care in remote, rural and island communities.

Below Zoe's slides summarising report Bringing care closer to home | Hospice UK:

Mark Isherwood thanked Zoe for her presentation and welcomed Andy Goldsmith to talk about Ty Gobaith's experience delivering care to children in remote and rural parts of North and Mid-Wales:

Below Andy's slides:

• Reach of children's services drops a lot more for rural areas of North and Mid-Wales posing questions regarding barriers to accessing services in these areas?
• WIMD shows that services are already supporting more children in areas with already better access to services, with household income appearing to be the biggest barrier to reaching children and families, highlighting wider issue of rural poverty.
• Ty Gobaith embedded community CNSs in Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board but there is limited provision into Mid-Wales/Powys. Reach has increased by over 200% in North Wales through the use of commnity teams.

Mark Isherwood thanked Andy for his presentation and welcomed Laura Hugman to talk about Paul Sartori Hospice at Home's experience delivering care across rural Pembrokeshire.

Below Laura's slides:

• Laura described the very rural communities Paul Sartori serve in Pembrokeshire and some of the challenges delivering services, including the additional resources needed to travel large distances to patients and families.

Discussion/questions

Mabon ap Gwynfor MS asked if Welsh Government should consider setting up a special fund to help people with transport costs in rural areas and Mark Isherwood asked how could/should such a fund be distributed?

Andy Goldsmith said there will always be travel costs involved in people accessing specialist palliative care in rural areas, in particular getting to Inpatient Units and similar settings. The current Mobility Scheme does help but there are still significant barriers and a dedicated travel fund would definitely help but how would it be distributed?

Mark Isherwood asked if the Discretionary Assistance Fund (DAF) could inform a potential eligibility criteria for a new travel fund, to which Natasha Davies from Marie Curie added that DAF is currently oversubscribed.

Carol Davies from HDA asked Laura if Paul Sartori had any plans to expand their services into Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire to which Laura said they hadn't at the moment.

Thea Brain from Care Forum Wales suggested that Citizen Advice could potentially play a role providing advice on travel support aligned to DAF.

ACTION: Mark Isherwood agreed with members that the CPG would write to the Cabinet Secretary introducing the Hospice UK report and the key issues raised by speakers. He also suggested the letter be sent to each of the party manifesto leads recognising the proximity of Senedd elections.

Update from National Palliative and End of Life Care Programme

Mark Isherwood welcomed Jackie Pottle and Lynda Kenway from the National Palliative and End of Life Care Programme to provide an update on the Programmes work, including progress developing a Service Specification for Palliative and End of Life Care and a National Commissioning Framework and Sustainable Funding Settlement for Hospices.

Jackie and Lynda's slides:

• Jackie and Lynda updated members on National Programme work developing:
• • Service Specification for PEOLC
  • Competency Framework for PEOLC
  • Governance and Assurance Specification for £3m in recurring funding for hospices (GAS)
  • National Commissioning Framework for hospices (NCF)
  • National Commissioning Framework for Specialist Palliaitive Care
• Lynda said that this work was an immediate priority for Welsh Government but had been impacted by capacity issues and changes within the National Programme Board (NPB) and NHS Joint Commissioning Committee. She recognised that hospices are in different positions in terms of reporting requirements for the purposes of the GAS and NCF and that they are focused on face-to-face engagement with hospices and other stakeholders throughtout the process.
• Jackie and Lynda also described NPB work on Future Care Planning and improving digital architecture for PEOLC, alongside shifting care and funding into the community and out of secondary care.  

Discussion/questions

Liz Booyse from City Hospice/Hospices Cymru thanked Lynda and Jackie for their work through what has been a difficult period for hospices and highlighted the importance of embedding Welsh Government's committment to develop a Sustainable Funding Settlement into the NCF.

Dr Sarah Davies descirbed the challenges they have with secondary care not communicating effectively with community care and people not being able to access services to support them properly in the community. Lynda recognised that lots of admissions to secondary care are avoidable and said the new Service Specification placed stronger emphasis on timely identification of people with a PEOLC need and developing new pathways for respiratory support.

Mark Isherwood asked what the NPB is doing to ensure that the 1 in 4 people who don't have access to PEOLC are being reached?

Lynda said they are trying to improve use of technology, education on death literacy, future care planning and promoting compassionate communities to try and reach more people.

Matthew Brindley asked how the NPB workplan and timelines will interact with a change of Government following the 2026 Senedd Election.

Lynda said they are working towards rolling over the current workplan and timelines following the 2026 election.

Any other business

Mark Isherwood said that he planned to visit St David's Hospice in Llandudno. He also noted that a Senedd session of the  Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister wants to hear about the impact of the budget on hospices. He asked members to send him any relevant info by Friday morning.

Next meeting and close

Mark Isherwood thanked everybody for joining the CPG meeting and said a date for the next meeting would be circulated.