Objectives Some failures in end-of-life care have been attributed to inconsistent provision of palliative care across England. We aimed to explore the variation in commissioning of services by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) using a data collection exercise. Methods We sent a Freedom of Information request in the form of an open questionnaire to all 209 CCGs in England to assess their commissioning of palliative and end-of-life care services, mainly focused on the provision of specialist palliative care services.

The results of this survey demonstrate some of the key struggles each demographic group faces immediately after bereavement and into the future. It is clear that preparation and bereavement support have a profound effect on mitigating the negative impacts seen here.