The Better End of Life programme

We look at the current state of dying, death and bereavement in the UK, and at how to ensure that everyone has the best possible end of life experience.

The Better End of Life programme is a collaboration between Marie Curie and King's College London's Cicely Saunders Institute, Hull York Medical School at the University of Hull, and the University of Cambridge.

The programme examines evidence on the current state of dying, death and bereavement across the four nations of the United Kingdom and proposes a policy agenda aimed at helping to ensure that everyone has the best possible end of life experience. 

Better End of Life July 2022 research reports

Where people die, and the quality of care that they receive towards the end of life, matters.

Understanding patterns of where people die is essential to support health policies, resource allocation, and planning and commissioning of services.

This is especially important right now because of the major shifts in place of care and death during the pandemic, and population ageing which means that deaths and demand for palliative and end of life care services will increase substantially over the next 20 years.

This second set of research reports from the Better End of Life programme is entitled 'Fairer Care at Home. The Covid-19 pandemic: a stress test for palliative and end of life care'.

In these reports, the researchers use routinely collected data to explore whether the Covid-19 pandemic uncovered or amplified inequalities in place of death related to deprivation in all four nations of the UK. 

Read the research reports


Better End of Life 2021 research report and policy briefings

Take a closer look at the first research report from the programme, exploring the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on dying, death and bereavement in the UK.

Find out more