About Claire Henry MBE | End-of-Life Care Specialist UK

About Claire Henry MBE,

RGN BSc(hons), PGDip Diploma in Coaching, Masters in NLP

My career in health and care spans over 30 years in clinical, managerial and quality improvement roles within the NHS and 3rd sector.

My journey into end of life care started as a nurse on a surgical ward in Boston, Lincolnshire. As a young student nurse, I saw too many cases where patients who were dying, their families and carers, were not given any real support to prepare for their death, and this was in stark contrast to the support patients were given before and after surgery. I felt more could be done to make a difference and improve the care available for those at the end of their life.

I started my journey at the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester where I worked as a Macmillan nurse, and I have worked in end of life care ever since.

I have led national end of life programmes for the Department of Health and NHSE, including the NHS End of Life Care Programme which supported the implementation of the National End of Life Care Strategy for England 2008 and National Choice offer for end of life care “What’s important to me” 2015

I have held senior roles in the VCSE including being CEO National Council for Palliative Care and Dying Matters and was Co-Founder of the National Lung Cancer Forum for Nurses.

I was delighted to become a Patron of the Anne Robson Trust, an organisation set up to support individuals facing the end of their life, and those close to them. I am also a Director of The Loss Project, an organisation whose focus is finding creative ways to support grief, loss and bereavement.

I have always stayed close to and actively involved in end of life services in Rutland and the East Midlands and I am a Trustee at two local hospices LOROS and Dove Cottage.

I now work independently supporting health and social care organisations through strategy development, training and coaching to create a better end of life experience for the individuals in their care, their families and carers. As well as running my own business I am an associate with a number of other organisations including Foundations of Nursing Studies (FONS), the Florence Nightingale Foundation and Whole Systems Partnership.

Following a number of conversations about how uncomfortable people are talking about death, and the myths about grieving, I have started working with private sector organisations to provide support when someone dies. I have also developed in collaboration with colleagues a range of workshops and briefings designed to help staff to deal with situations including the death of a colleague, and how to respond when a colleague loses a family member or friend.

I am also an honorary Fellow at the Open University, involved in evaluation work in palliative and end of life care and a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge Palliative and End of Life Care research group.

In 2013 I was honoured to be awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for my services to improving end-of-life care and in the same year received a lifetime achievement award from the International Journal of Palliative Nursing.

Be flexible & responsive
Be honest & open
Be client focused
Be passionate about improvement
be collaborative & work in partnership

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”

Gina King

Gina is an independent Consultant, Trainer, and a well-being Coach with a career spanning 39 years mainly in end of life care. She trained as a nurse, and moved into an NHS role commissioning end of life services in South West England where she also led on various region wide quality improvement projects to improve the care for those at the end of life.

Gina is passionate about supporting staff to deliver the best care, and has been involved in education and training and has developed learning resource materials such as the Circle of Life board game [website] in conjunction with the National Council for Palliative Care.

https://www.ginaking.co.uk/

Catherine Blackaby MBA

Catherine is an executive coach, facilitator and trainer who works with individuals, teams and organisations to help them achieve their potential through leadership development, quality improvement and change management.

With over 30 years’ experience of working in the NHS, including service development and redesign, operational management of both hospital and community services, and national improvement roles, Catherine brings a wealth of real life experience and practical tools to her work. She is an engaging presenter and improvement leader, who focuses on building people’s confidence and capability with knowledge and skills they can put into use immediately.

Catherine is a former Improvement Fellow with the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, where she undertook improvement skills training with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in the USA. She is a practitioner of both MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and SDI (Strengths Deployment Inventory), an NLP Master Practitioner and accredited Executive Coach, and has a particular interest in leadership development and the human and cultural aspects of change.

Helen Bourner MA (Leeds)

Helen has been working in health and care for over 20 years. In her last full time role as an NHS board director she had responsibility for strategy and partnership working at Airedale Hospital where she also provided leadership for the NHS Vanguard programme enhanced health in care homes.

Since leaving the NHS Helen has worked as an independent consultant and has worked on a range of projects including the redesign of an A&E department, strategic workforce redesign for end of life services in Lincolnshire, a grants review for a city council in the south of England, and workforce modelling to support planning for domiciliary care in the South West. She provides project management and takes the lead in stakeholder engagement work.

When she left the NHS Helen was keen to support her local community and began volunteering with HADCA in Harrogate during the pandemic. She is now chair of HADCA, which helps her wider understanding of the voluntary, community, social enterprises (VCSE) sector.

Marie Cooper

Marie is a nurse with extensive experience of clinical leadership across a range of care settings. Having delivered change in her previous roles, she now supports others to do so. Her area of interest now is in working with nurse leaders in their development as they hone their own personal skills and strength . Such opportunities have given her a clarity about the many issues leaders and those engaged in end of life care face.

Marie was Practice Development Lead for Hospice UK where she worked with hospice clinical leaders and national organisations such as the CQC, Dementia UK and NHS England to champion the delivery of high quality, accessible end of life care.

Marie, now a freelance accredited coach, thrives on the diversity of her clients. Her current focus includes an exciting research study centered on the experiences of unpaid carers at the University of Surrey.

As a senior associate at St Christopher's Hospice in London, she engages with nurses locally and internationally, co-hosting a Global Palliative Nursing Network to advance palliative care practices worldwide. https://www.stchristophers.org.uk/gpnn/