Local influencing: how to evidence your impact

Decision-makers might not be familiar with hospice care – so take every opportunity to show them what you do.

Your networks, collaborative working and reach into the community will often overlap into areas your local system wants to develop. You might already be providing a solution that they don’t know about – for example bereavement support or rehabilitative care.

You can use demographic data to demonstrate and improve your service reach.

You might have service evaluations that you can share to show the impact you’ve had. Or you could use our PCOM360 tool to measure and display patient-centred outcomes.

Diversity and inclusion are an increasingly important consideration for local decision-makers. Highlight how you reach underserved communities and amplify people’s voices – whether through direct outreach, consultation work, or co-producing services.

Discuss ways in which you could extend your services to meet more people’s needs (with the right support in place).

Find out more about promoting equality at the end of life.

In the wake of COVID-19 there is much more awareness of the challenges faced by health and social care providers such as hospitals, GPs and care homes. Hospices can support the local system and reduce hospital admissions or stays.

Be prepared to evidence the cost and impact of what you provide compared to the cost of other services such as hospital wards. You will need to be clear about your current and potential capacity and utilisation rates.

Hospices are able to work more flexibly than larger statutory sector organisations. This means you can quickly adapt and develop services to meet local need. It makes hospices ideal for piloting innovative new models of care.

Demonstrate how you adapted, developed and reconfigured services at rapid pace in the context of COVID-19; this is exactly the kind of practice that systems will be seeking to promote, resource, and emulate. 

Read more about how hospices adapted during the pandemic.

Putting together a business case will help you demonstrate that you are delivering vital, high-quality, cost-effective care that saves money elsewhere.

Include projections of potential financial challenges your services will face to demonstrate that you're horizon planning. This will also highlight gaps that other funding could help bridge.

Infographics help you get complex information across in a way that’s quick, clear, impactful and memorable. It’s worth taking the time to think about how you can best display the evidence to back up your case.

For example, Birmingham City Council has used a version of a train map to graphically demonstrate how life expectancy changes in different areas of the city.

Using statistics can add weight to your cause. As a general rule, it’s best to use them sparingly for the most impact. If you’re looking at trends over time or showing differences between different groups, check that the datasets you’re using are comparable.

Think about what data collection already exists, where you can feed in or extract information, and whether you need to collect different data yourself.

Use our data about hospices in the UK as a starting point.

Getting involved with national campaigns can be a great way to raise local awareness and gather support. 

Find out how to become a part of Dying Matters and Hospice Care Week.

Using the local media can help you gain traction on a challenging issue. It can also help you raise awareness of hospice services.

Find out more about leveraging the local media to raise awareness.