Call for practice: terminal illness workplace policies and procedures

Closing date: 30 June 2023

Our research, published in November 2022, highlighted that people of working age experience significant financial, social, welfare and legal challenges as a direct result of terminal illness. This can interact with demands of their diagnosis, and compound the poor mental wellbeing of individuals and close family members. 

The range of employer support available to staff working with a terminal diagnosis varies substantially. There are pockets of great practice, but too often employees are likely to find themselves unclear on the support available and unsure of how to access it. In some cases, this ‘employer lottery’ is further compounded by value judgements, which could, in the absence of published procedures, lead to unjust and avoidable inequity in support.

Working in partnership with Marie Curie, the UK’s leading charitable funder of palliative and end of life care research, the What Works Centre for Wellbeing is leading a project to build our knowledge and understanding of ‘what works’ in policies and procedures to support  employees working with a terminal illness.

Our aim is to identify the key ingredients of a great policy.  

If you have developed a terminal illness policy for your company, or you work in an organisation with an established policy, we would love to hear from you.

Please submit your policy to us, confidentially, via the secure form below.  We will not publish your policy, nor publicly identify your organisation. 

For further information, and to learn more about the research, please contact our Head of Implementation & Learning, Joanne Smithson joanne.smithson@whatworkswellbeing.org