2022 conference review

8:45 – Joining

Stewart Marks has 18 years charity sector experience and has devoted most of this to the strategic management, development and fundraising of palliative and end-of-life care. 

Prior to joining Rennie Grove, Stewart was Hospice Director for the Sue Ryder Duchess of Kent and Nettlebed Hospices, leading the palliative and end of life care services provided across Berkshire and Oxfordshire. 

Stewart’s working life started with HM Diplomatic Service including postings in Cyprus and Jordan.  During a 10-year career at Marie Curie, Stewart created and grew the Charity’s Fundraising Operations function and developed the strategic public sector relationships across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

Stewart is a graduate of Oxford Brookes University and La Rochelle Business School with a BA(Hons) in European Business Studies. 

‘Working collaboratively to support the delivery of high quality, personalised palliative and end-of-life care, for all, across all settings.’ 

​Sue is the National Programme Director for Palliative and End of Life Care at NHS England and Improvement. She has worked for the NHS since 1989 in many roles including clinical, operational management, system transformation, commissioning and policy advice. For the last seven years Sue has worked at NHSE. Sue led the work on system reform to enable personalised care, firstly helping shift commissioning and finance systems to facilitate personal health budgets. More recently Sue has led the transformation programme, working to further develop the Palliative and End of Life Programme, building capacity both nationally and locally; creating regional Strategic Clinical Networks; instigating national workstreams to drive clinical excellence; increasing opportunities for insightful commissioning through enhancing data and intelligence and working with newly forming Integrated Care Systems. During the pandemic, Sue led on the national Covid funding to support the NHS increasing capacity through hospice and community provision.   

More recently Sue led the development of the Statutory Guidance on the duties placed on Integrated Care Boards in relation to Palliative and End of Life Care. The guidance underpins the Health and Social Care Act 2022. Sue holds a Master’s in Health and Social Care Management and Leadership and is an honorary lecturer at Leeds University. She is a fellow of Leaders Empowering Organisations and is a member of the Royal Institute of Public Health. Sue holds several voluntary roles in her community and is passionate about increasing choice and equity for all.   

‘Working in synergy: the London Ambulance Service and PEoLC’ 

Dr Diane Laverty: DCP; MSc; BSc (Hons); RGN, Onc cert 

Diane qualified as a nurse in the late 1980’s. She specialised in palliative nursing and has worked in numerous roles and settings, developing and managing palliative care services across different areas of care, including the pre-hospital setting where she is currently the Macmillan Nurse Consultant at the London Ambulance NHS Trust. She works alongside paramedics to improve palliative and end of life care in the pre-hospital setting. 

As a nurse with many years of experience she is passionate about patients and carers having a voice and receiving high quality palliative care across all settings. She is particularly interested in change management and developing leadership within all sectors of the healthcare service. Her other interests are service development, advance care planning and professionally developing junior staff. 

She has completed a doctorate, published widely and is an editorial member of the International Journal of Palliative Nursing. 

Karina Catley:  MSc; BSc (Hons); PgCertEd 

Karina has worked for the London Ambulance service as a paramedic for 8 years and is currently the Macmillan Paramedic Lead, Palliative and End of Life Care working on the Macmillan end of life care team. She has completed a Masters in Palliative Care where her dissertation focussed on research of how paramedics use electronic palliative care coordination systems for decision making with end of life care patients. She has an interest in patient engagement and using patient and carers experience to improve the care that can be provided in the prehospital setting. 

11:15 – Break

‘Our journey in creating HPAL: A Community Palliative Care Resource’ 

​Dr Ros Taylor, Medical Director at Harlington Hospice 

Dr Ros Taylor, MBE, is an experienced palliative physician who has worked in Hospice, Community and Hospital, for over 30 years. She has a particular interest in educating others – professionals and the public – so that everyone becomes more familiar with the care of the dying patient. She lectures widely, nationally and internationally, and was a Commissioner on the recent Lancet Commission on the Value of Death which has a key recommendation to improve death literacy. 

Dr Poppy Freeman, GP 

Dr Poppy Freeman is a GP in Camden. She has a background in producing award winning digital clinical communication tools for general practice. She is also a clinical advisor to Pulse Today.  

12:30 

Lunch 

‘Everyone’s a teacher through pandemics, bills and exhaustion’ 

Professor Max Watson is a Palliative Care Consultant in Omagh Northern Ireland. In addition half of his working week is with Hospice UK in London and Belfast. Max has a passion for generalist palliative care education and research, using innovative technology to create communities of practice to improve end of life care in underserved communities. Influenced by experience of working in rural Nepal for eight years Max has developed a range of educational programmes and handbooks, including the Oxford Handbook of Palliative Care and the European Certificate in Essential Palliative Care with the goal of “democratizing” specialist knowledge. Since 2002 these programmes have been completed by more than 20,000 Doctors and Nurses in the UK, and internationally.  As Director of Project ECHO with Hospice UK Max is leading the spread of ECHO methodology across the UK with more than 60 networks now established in a wide range of clinical and non-clinical areas from prison health care to practice based pharmacy, care homes to GP support. 

‘Working together and learning together: the story of two hospices collaborating to share learning and development’ 

Sophie Ebeling RN, RNT, BSc (hons), PG Dip, PGCE is the Head of Learning and Development for Rennie Grove Hospice Care and Peace Hospice Care. Sophie is a registered nurse and nurse teacher, and has specialised in palliative care education since 2009. She is passionate about learning and development, with a particular interest in reflexive experiential learning and clinical supervision. Sophie is committed to reflecting a palliative care philosophy in learning and development, putting learners at the heart of a patient-centred approach to education and learning. 

13:15 

Break 

‘How companions collaborate with patients and healthcare professionals in palliative care: evidence from video-based research on hospice-based consultations.’ 

Marco Pino is a senior lecturer in communication and social interaction at Loughborough University. His research focuses on how healthcare professionals, patients, and their carers communicate in palliative and end-of-life care and bereavement support. Working in a multi-disciplinary team of researchers, clinicians, and trainers, Marco has contributed to creating RealTalk, a set of evidence-based web resources for communication training in palliative, end-of-life care, and bereavement support.