28 Sep 2026 Care

The Kirklees Care Charter Awards 2026

Celebrating care homes embedding compassionate end of life care into practice.

There was plenty to celebrate at The Kirkwood last Wednesday, as care home teams came together to receive their awards for completing the Kirklees Care Charter 2026.

Led and delivered by Debs Hanson, Clinical Lead for the Specialist Palliative Care Service for Kirklees Care Homes, in partnership with Suzanne Vear and Lisa Choma, Macmillan Nurse Specialists for Palliative Care Education in Care Homes, from the Locala Care Home Support Team. The Kirklees Care Charter supports care homes to build knowledge, confidence and good practice around end of life care, helping to ensure that people receive compassionate, individualised care when they need it most.

This year, four care homes successfully completed the programme. Champions in End-of-Life Care from the Priory in Dewsbury, Birch Park in Cleckheaton, Castleholme Lodge in Huddersfield and Mencap, Pennine Crescent in Huddersfield came together to receive their award plaques and certificates, recognising the commitment and work they have put in over the past 12 months.

The Charter is a quality improvement programme that gives care homes the opportunity to look at their existing approach to palliative and end of life care, build on the good practice already in place and identify where improvements can be made.

As part of the programme, Champions in End-of-Life Care take part in face to face teaching and digital learning before putting their knowledge into practice within their own care setting. They also compile a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate how they have worked towards the six standards of the Charter.

While two people from each care home take on the role of Champion in End-of-Life Care, the learning is intended to reach further. By taking their newly gained knowledge and skills back to their wider teams, the Champions can help embed good practice across the whole care setting and make improvements that benefit the people they care for and their families.

Debs Hanson, said: “I am so proud of the care homes that have achieved the Kirklees Care Charter Award this year. They have worked very hard to achieve this and are truly committed to improving and embedding best practice palliative and end of life care into their care settings in a way that is meaningful for their residents.”

“These care homes are the third cohort to achieve the Kirklees Care Charter, and I am excited to continue to lead on this programme, in collaboration with Suzanne and Lisa from Locala, so that we can support even more care homes to participate in this programme and to improve the experiences and outcomes for their residents at end of life.”

For Blessing Hoyi, from Castleholme Lodge in Huddersfield, taking part in the programme has been an opportunity to build knowledge and confidence in an area of care that his team does not encounter as frequently.

“We don't have much end of life care at our place, so we learned quite a lot,” he explained. The training has encouraged the team to look beyond the clinical aspects of care and consider the whole person, including their wishes, comfort and the role of their family.

“It’s all about holistic care, considering the individual to make sure they’re as comfortable as possible at the end of their life.”

For Blessing and his colleagues, receiving their award is not the end of the journey. They already have goals in place for the year ahead, with plans to continue developing their knowledge and putting what they have learned into practice across the care home.

At Birch Park, Linda Mumford found that the Charter built on the good work already taking place within the home, while also encouraging the team to look at things in new ways.

“It backs up what we were already doing, but it also opens our eyes to new things that we can put in place,” she said.

As a larger nursing home providing a significant amount of end of life care, Birch Park has been able to bring the learning into its existing approach to care, including its care planning system. But Linda says the learning has not stopped with the two people who completed the programme. It is being shared across the whole team.

“We’re rolling it out across the whole staff team, including everybody, right down to maintenance.”

That wider approach is an important part of the Charter. By taking their learning back to their care homes, Champions in End-of-Life Care can help colleagues across their teams develop their understanding of end of life care and consider how it can be reflected in the way they support people and their families.

For Linda, the opportunity to gain experience alongside people from other care homes has also been a valuable part of the experience. The blended approach to the programme has given participants the chance to share ideas and experiences from different types of care settings.

“It’s good,” she said. “We share ideas between the different homes.”

And some of those ideas are already being put into practice at Birch Park. The team has introduced new information and resources for families, including a dedicated display explaining the end of life care available and where families can access further support.

It is these small but meaningful changes that show how learning from the Charter can become part of everyday care. From developing knowledge and confidence within a team, to making sure families have the information and support they need, the programme is helping care homes put compassionate end of life care into practice.

Receiving an award marks an important achievement, but the learning continues beyond the celebration. Over the next two years, care homes will continue to evidence how the Charter has been embedded within their setting and the difference it has made, before new Champions in End-of-Life Care can take part and build on that learning.

In this way, the Kirklees Care Charter creates a continuing cycle of learning, sharing and development across care homes, helping to build knowledge and confidence in end of life care across our local communities.

A huge congratulations to Victoria Hetherington and Hajrah Baig from Priory in Dewsbury; Jackie Foxton and Linda Mumford from Birch Park, Cleckheaton; Blessing Hoyi and Catherine Michongwe from Castleholme Lodge, Huddersfield; and Barbara Matula and Amanda Booth from Mencap, Pennine Crescent in Huddersfield, along with everyone who has supported them throughout the programme.

We’d also like to thank Debs Hanson, Clinical Lead for the Specialist Palliative Care Service for Kirklees Care Homes and Suzanne Vear and Lisa Choma from the Locala Care Home Support Team for their continued partnership and commitment to improving end of life care across our local care homes.