I am currently employed as a communications assistant at Hospiscare in Exeter and I was fortunate to have been given the chance to spend three days with the policy team at Help the Hospices and find out a little more about the work they are involved in.
My spell of work experience began on Monday 8 July with a meeting with Catherine Deakin, advocacy and policy manager at Help the Hospices, to whom I am indebted to for arranging and organising the week’s events. The induction involved a brief discussion about the planned itinerary and what I might expect for the remainder of the week.
After coffee, we walked to the first meeting of the week with the National Bereavement Alliance. This meeting was attended by members from across the sector and provided a forum to discuss developments in the law and how bereavement services might be delivered to meet these changes. The consortium of individuals represented a variety of organisations such as the Bereavement Services Association and the Childhood Bereavement Charity. Witnessing the Alliance raise and discuss their agenda topics was interesting and informative, with illuminating comments arising from their workplan in progress.
Later that afternoon I met with Robert Melnitschuk, advocacy and policy manager, and we headed off to an Associate Parliamentary Health Group meeting at the Palace of Westminster. This event aimed to establish how integrated health and social care could be secured in the future. Hearing the thoughts of Liz Kendall, Shadow Minister for Older People, Chris Ham, chief executive of The King’s Fund, as well as clinical leads, gave me a greater understanding of the potential changes and key arguments involved in achieving a better integrated healthcare system. I really appreciated hearing the discussions that gave me food for thought about the challenges ahead, ensuring we achieve joined-up, partnered health and social care that is attentive to patients’ needs – no easy solution!
On Wednesday, Catherine and Robert talked me through the policy process at Help the Hospices, discussing their day-to-day work and the numerous organisations they are involved with. This was particularly interesting as it offered insight into the policy priorities and the consultation processes more generally (that to my surprise extended beyond Parliamentarians at Westminster).
Later that morning I was asked to draft a summary of a briefing from the Treasury on changes to how charities administer Gift Aid. This task was a challenging one, in identifying the most relevant and the important information and putting it into succinct form for Help the Hospices members. I was grateful for the opportunity to try my hand at this report writing, as the skills acquired during this task will be useful returning to my local hospice.
After a morning of frantic reading (and writing) on my part, I met with other members of the Help the Hospices team, including Helen Nash, marketing administrator, and Natasha Robinson, national hospice support manager. It was kind of them both to discuss what their roles entailed and their connections to the different hospices they work with.
On my final day, I was invited to attend a number of diverse meetings. The first of these opened my eyes to the consultation process in the wake of the Francis Report. Hearing the team articulate their thoughts about the policy implications for hospices gave me a useful indication of the processes involved in conjunction with Westminster.
Following this, Jonathan Ellis, head of policy, and Robert invited me to sit in on a meeting with DODs, who will be carrying out some research for Help the Hospices with the aim of gaining further insight into how MPs understand hospice care. The discussions raised in this session provided valuable background for the last meeting of the day, with policy representatives from Marie Curie Cancer Care and Sue Ryder, to talk about the forthcoming political party conferences. This was really interesting to listen in on – the logistics of planning for an event at party conferences was hitherto unknown to me, listening to the priorities of the charities in maintaining the profile of palliative care came across strongly during the discussions.
After a hectic, challenging and exciting three days, it was time to catch the train from Paddington back to Exeter. I cannot thank Catherine, Robert and the Help the Hospices staff enough for the opportunity to see at first hand the vital work they do in relation to public policy and the national agenda for hospices. I had a thoroughly enjoyable week, and the experience has encouraged me to pursue a career in policy and the third sector. I am once again very thankful for their time and interest, and I look forward to closely following developments of Help the Hospices in the future.
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