HSA donates £70,000 to hospice community grants scheme

Help the Hospices, the national charity for the hospice movement, has received a donation of £70,000 from HSA, Healthplan provider and part of Simplyhealth Group. This will fund Help the Hospice’s Regional and Outreach Training Grants programme which provides financial assistance to hospices throughout the UK to enable them to run specialist courses, study days and conferences for professionals in their local communities.

The new donation follows a payment of £150,000 made by HSA last year to Help the Hospices’ Professional Development Grants Programme which funds training for individual hospice employees to enhance their skills and expertise.

Chris Harrison, Managing Director at HSA, said, “Everyone at some point in their lives has been touched by the work of the hospice movement. That’s why we wanted to lend our support to an initiative that broadens their effort and offers a unique benefit to communities. Hospices are an essential part of our communities, and this programme will really help extend the core hospice services to a wider audience.”

Maxine Blunden, fundraising director, Help the Hospices, said, “The Regional Outreach Training Grants help hospices to improve the care provided across the board within their region by satisfying unmet educational needs of different local professionals. This directly benefits both hospice users and others within the community that the professionals come into contact with. Hospices have a tremendous amount of expertise to share and this donation from HSA will enable them to do it. Hospices themselves also learn a lot from the professionals they teach so the benefits are on many levels. We are extremely grateful to HSA for funding this essential programme.”

Examples of courses that will be funded include training for school teachers to help them support children facing bereavement, and short courses on specific palliative care techniques and procedures to improve care for people in non-hospice settings, such as care homes for the elderly.