The charity was seeking to understand the value of the services it provides in economic terms and to use this to make the case for a sustained increased in statutory funding.

We first established data on the activity and cost of all the services offered by the charity in the most recent year, taking into account the impact of Covid 19.

Then we identified a categorisation of the benefits which could be attributed to the charity’s services. This was based on a search of the international published literature on palliative and end-of-life care, with a best-fit application to the charity services agreed with their management team.

We then built a model comparing the costs of the service to the benefits, which include reduction in health and social care service use and improvements in the quality and duration of patients’ lives.

The model includes QOL benefits that apply the families and carers of palliative care patients, as well as to the patients themselves.

The results of the evaluation reported a number of analyses, including the impacts on public sector budgets and the return on investment across the health and social care economy.