What’s behind our service re-design?

St Nicholas Hospice Care is focussed on making the changes it needs to make to ensure our services continue to provide the very best experiences for those across our community in the final chapters of their lives.

The process started with our away days in October 2016 when people from across the organisation were asked to think about what we do and how we do it.

We have now decided on a name for this ongoing process, which best describes what we need to achieve, Listen Learn Adapt.

This is a long-term process about:

• Listening to what our community says about their experiences of dying, death and bereavement, particularly the experiences of those who have not received Hospice support.
• Learning by using the information gathered to gain an overall view on what people have said and explore ideas that could lead to better experiences.
• Adapting our services by working with staff, partners, the people we care for their families and others to develop a sustainable service model.

What are we going to do?

The simple answer is that we are going to start creating a Hospice service model that will meet the needs of our community now and in the future. To do that we need people to tell us about their experiences of dying, death and bereavement, we also need independent help to review our services. We need a fresh pair of eyes.

Why are we doing this?

The demand for our services is growing and we need to reach more people in our community.

We are facing funding challenges. There will be a £236, 243 reduction in the amount we receive from the West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group in the coming years and it is becoming more difficult to fundraise.

We are spending more than we are bringing in. Currently we are funding this gap with the charity’s reserves but this cannot continue.

When will this start?

It started with the away days and over the next few months we’ll start the listening process.

Our first exercise was to refresh the Hospice’s values.