Virtual Hospice CEO Group
The Virtual Hospice CEO Group meets monthly to discuss and address strategic issues facing the sector with the input of an expert external speaker.
The Virtual Hospice CEO Group
The group was set up in 2020 as an on-line forum for CEOs to discuss strategic challenges and opportunities in an open and supportive way. We keep numbers small enough to do this productively, but large enough to get a good range of opinions.
Over the years, we have had dozens of speakers on a spectrum of subjects ranging from strategy and governance, all aspects of income generation, to EDI, community engagement, organisational culture and volunteering.
Liz Searle, CEO at Keech Hospice is one of the longest serving members of the group.
‘I have been a member of the Virtual Hospice CEO group since the very early days and always enjoy attending the sessions. We have a great variety of speakers and I always come away with some really beneficial insights or ideas. Highly recommended!’
Below are details about some of our recent sessions. If you are interested in joining the group, please contact me.
August 2025 Nigel Hartley MBE
It was a pleasure to welcome Nigel Hartley MBE as the speaker at the latest session.
Nigel has spent over 40 years in the End of Life care sector, but will shortly step down from his role as CEO of the Mountbatten Hospice Group.
Nigel shared his experiences working at the London Lighthouse in the early years of the AIDS crisis and then reflected on his time at St Christopher’s, including getting to know Dame Cicely Saunders.
He moved onto his time at Mountbatten, in particular the merger between the Isle of Wight’s service and the NHS unit in Southampton, the challenges of hospice collaboration and the success of their annual ‘Walk the Wight’ event which now raises over £500,000!
In recent months his time has been dominated by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB’s decision to withdraw £1.4 million in funding from their services, a move now partly but not permanently reversed.
Nigel was also incredibly open talking about the vulnerabilities and self-doubt he has had in leadership, but also the power of being fully open with staff and volunteers about threats and challenges.
Thanks for speaking so openly and honestly Nigel. And all the best with whatever the future has in hold for you.
July 2025
21 Reflections on Organisational Turnarounds
I've never met anybody who came into civil into a civil society because they fancied doing charity turnaround. We're all motivated by something very, very different, but sometimes we have to do this.
And if we can do it in a way that is true to our values and centric to service users, it's better, frankly, than turnaround being done by people who don't care.’
These were just some of the wise words that Simon Hopkins shared with the group. There were many more.
In the most challenging environment the sector has ever faced, hearing the reflections and advice from someone with vast experience in turnarounds in the commercial and charity sectors was invaluable.
As Simon said, the skills needed are as much, if not more, around communication and empathy as financial. Some of his 21 points might appear to be common sense. But in the intense pressure of a turnaround situation, this may not be as clear.
The skill set needed in such scenarios are rarely included in management training. But in today's world, they are likely to be ones that we will all need at some time in our career.
June 2025 A Tale of Two Hospices
In the words of one former hospice CEO, ‘It used to be a risk to collaborate; now it’s a risk not to.’ However, talking about it is one thing; successfully putting it into action is quite another.
At this session, Colin Twomey, CEO of St Wilfrid's in Eastbourne and Karen Clarke his counterpart from St Michael’s in Hastings, told us how the two hospices have developed their partnership.
This started with sharing a Finance Director in 2021. They now have seven joint roles, including three at Director level, the other two being the clinical and medical posts. They also work together in a number of other ways.
A MoU underpins the partnership and they also have an annual joint trustees meeting, as well as six monthly Chair and CEO catch ups. Karen and Colin openly shared the challenges as well as the benefits of their relationship. Also, some of the opportunities they are looking at going forward.
All in all, a great example of collaboration in practice.
May 2025 Kate Lee
Kate Lee is one of the most admired CEOs in the voluntary sector. Indeed, her reputation for how she has led the transformation of the Alzheimer’s Society in the last few years spreads far beyond the charity world. However, Kate’s first CEO role was actually at Myton Hospice in Warwickshire between 2010 and 2015.
Speaking to the group, Kate reflected on how much she had learnt in her time there which helped her in later roles, for example from meeting patients and their families. Interestingly, she said the change management she led at the hospice was the most complex in her career as evidence of the need for change was not so obvious as in other organisations.
Kate is about to step down from Alzheimer’s Society. Although she has no definite plans as yet, she did assure us she will most likely be back in the sector sooner rather than later!
April 2025
Getting the Best out of LinkedIn
Michelle Benson is probably best known for her seemingly never-ending pictures that show the challenges, pitfalls and misunderstandings around the world of fundraising. These regularly appear on LinkedIn and have helped her build up a large following.
However, she is also an expert on how best to use the medium as a way to generate new business, and not simply as an awareness tool. Her session with the group was instructive in many of the ways to do this. And made many of us realise how little we really knew about how LinkedIn works.
March 2025
Ivor Williams
Ivor Williams is an award winning designer who has been involved in setting many innovative initiatives around death and dying, across all ages, including ReSPECT and Palliate, now used across the NHS. He has previously worked at Imperial College Healthcare, Accurx and Hellix and has also worked closely with St Christopher’s.
Ivor took us through some of the challenges and opportunities of using innovative design led approaches to tech enabled end of life care services. But also, how sometimes our cultures can be the biggest barriers, whether this be down to overt risk aversion or paternalistic views of patients and carers ability to look after themselves.
February 2025
Stephen Greenhalgh & Heather Richardson
This month we were joined by Stephen Greenhalgh, formerly CEO of St Catherine’s Hospice, Preston and Heather Richardson, who has served in a variety of senior roles across the sector.
Stephen led a discussion on some of the tensions and challenges facing hospices which came out of his recently completed PhD. His semiotics outlining these and which cover a range of questions, as shown below, provide a great framework for reflection and debate on the future development of hospices.
- Why did hospices form in the 20th century?
- Why are hospices here in the 21st century?
- What is the hospice idea or concept?
- What are the roles of hospices? Who owns death?
- How are hospices developing?
- What kind of hospice do you want to be?
January 2025
Dan Hartman, Consultant Community Geriatrician
Dan expressed his passion for improving the care of older people and his experience with the Jean Bishop Integrated Care Centre, which focuses on frailty care in the community for residents in Hull and East Riding. He is also a Trustee of Dove House Hospice in Hull.
Dan outlined the Centre's journey from 2017. They were already delivering intermediate care to comprehensive geriatric assessment in the community from three settings. They are now offering proactive assessment in the community e.g. at 200+ care homes and include other teams such as neurology, dementia, respiratory services, etc.
He also mentioned the establishment of an emergency advice and guidance line, an urgent community response, and a hospital at home virtual ward model. Dan also emphasized the potential role of palliative care in this space, especially given all the projections for an increasingly elderly and frail population in the years to come.
December 2024 Hospice UK Conference
Our final session of the year discussed some of the main topics coming out of the recent Hospice UK conference in Glasgow.
Not surprise that assisted dying was top of the pack with the second reading of the Westminster bill imminent. Some felt that the subsequent result was the best outcome in the campaign for better hospice funding, as the calls for more investment in EOL care will continue to be made by both sides. It seems to be one thing everyone agrees upon.
So, no surprise either that government financial support was second. The success of Irish hospices in achieving pretty much full state funding left some deeply envious. But others feared the loss of independence this might lead to, should it happen over here.
I’m sure we will hear lots more on both topics in 2025.
November 2024
So how should Government fund hospice care?
It was fitting that the 50th Virtual Hospice CEO Session had our ever largest attendance and discussed the age-old issue of government funding. Toby Porter, CEO of Hospice UK, took us through their highly effective advocacy campaign and we also explored some of the potential ways forward in terms of state support for hospices.
We now await the promised pre-Christmas announcement. But, as Toby said, if this is just to reverse the impact of the national insurance rise, that would not tackle the long-term structural issue of state under-funding that is causing so many hospices to reduce services.
October 2024
Should we focus on the 'core' of hospice care?
In these challenging times, the group discussed the question of whether, given worsening financial constraints, hospices may have to focus on the provision of core services.
As you might expect, there was no consensus on what constituted 'core' hospice care. But there was agreement that there will always be a need for in-patient beds providing high quality care for those with complex conditions that hospices are best placed to provide.
It was also noted that many hospices ceased their ‘traditional’ day care services during the pandemic, or have amended them with a greater emphasis on well-being services with more of an ‘out-patient’ nature. The importance of maintaining these was also agreed upon.
Another frank and open discussion which gave colleagues the chance to share experiences and discuss potential ways forward.
August & September 2024
Words, Culture and Death Cafes
Two very stimulating sessions with Rachel Beer, an experienced fundraising and comms consultant who has worked with several hospices.
- Does using terms such as ‘death’ and ‘dying’ alienate potential supporters and users?
- How do we really change public perceptions of hospice care? Is the ‘H’ word itself part of the problem?
- Are ‘death café’s effective in opening up discussions on dying – or do they potentially cause more harm than good?
- And do our cultures – including those in hospice income generation teams themselves – hinder rather than help fundraising?
