End of Life Awareness

End of life awareness training delivered at your workplace or live online. Half day or full day. The understanding, frameworks, and genuine preparation your team needs to support individuals and families at the end of life with confidence, compassion, and clarity.

Course Overview

End of life care is the most human thing a care worker will ever do. It is also the area where gaps in training land most heavily: on the person who is dying, on their family, and on the staff member left holding something they were never given the tools to process. This course gives care workers the understanding, the frameworks, and the permission to show up fully in one of the most significant moments in another person’s life. That means knowing what the physical signs of approaching death look like, how to communicate with a frightened family, and what a DNAR, DNACPR, or ReSPECT form actually covers — and critically, what it does not.

That last point matters more than most care workers realise. A DNAR order does not mean withhold all care. “It does not prevent a care worker from responding to a choking emergency, and it does not suspend first aid obligations. A care worker who stands back from a choking individual because a DNAR is in place has fundamentally misunderstood what that document means. This course addresses that misunderstanding directly. It also makes space for something care settings rarely acknowledge: the grief that care workers carry. Losing someone you have supported for months or years is a loss, and this course gives staff permission to grieve, helps them understand the boundary between professional boundaries and suppressed emotion, and ensures they know how to access support.

The course aligns with NHS England’s End of Life Care framework, NICE guideline NG142 (End of life care for adults: service delivery), NICE guideline NG31 (Care of dying adults in the last days of life), and the Skills for Health End of Life Care Core Skills Education and Training Framework. It reflects CQC Regulation 9: Person-Centred Care and Regulation 10: Dignity and Respect, and the legal framework of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Care Act 2014.

Course Details

  • Duration: Half day (3 to 4 hours) or full day (6 hours), depending on group needs
  • Delivery: Face-to-face in-house or live online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams
  • Certificate: CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in End of Life Awareness
  • Awarding organisations: CPD-Accredited
  • Validity: No formal expiry. Refresher recommended every 2 to 3 years, or sooner following significant changes to guidance, organisational policy, or the care needs of individuals being supported.
  • Group size: Maximum 12 learners per trainer

Who This Course Is For

This course is right for any care worker whose role involves supporting individuals who may be approaching the end of life.

  • Care assistants and support workers in care homes, supported living, and domiciliary care
  • Senior carers and team leaders
  • Residential and nursing home staff
  • Domiciliary care workers supporting individuals with progressive or life-limiting conditions
  • Managers and supervisors responsible for supporting care teams through the emotional demands of end of life work
  • Volunteers working with vulnerable adults in care settings
  • New starters whose induction includes end of life care responsibilities

This course is equally valuable for experienced staff who have supported many people at the end of life but have never had a structured space to process what that involves. For teams wanting a joined-up programme, this course pairs naturally with our Dementia Awareness, Mental Capacity Act and DoLS, and Dignity in Care training. Not sure which combination is right for your team? Get in touch, and we’ll help you work it out before you commit.

Why This Training Matters

The Skills for Health End of Life Care Core Skills Education and Training Framework sets out clearly that all staff who may encounter individuals approaching the end of life need a structured grounding in the knowledge, skills, and values that underpin good practice, regardless of whether end of life care is their primary role.

The Care Act 2014 places wellbeing at the heart of all care and support. For someone approaching the end of life, wellbeing means dignity, comfort, choice, and being cared for by people who understand and respect what this moment means. NICE guideline NG142 provides detailed clinical guidance on care in the last days of life. While this course does not deliver clinical training, it ensures care workers understand their role within the wider care framework and know when and how to escalate clinical concerns appropriately.

Under CQC Regulation 9: Person-Centred Care and Regulation 10: Dignity and Respect, providers must ensure individuals receive care genuinely centred on their needs, preferences, and wishes, and that they are treated with dignity at all times.

End-of-life care is the most direct test of both requirements, and CQC inspectors look carefully at how it is delivered. A service where staff are undertrained or unsupported in this area carries both regulatory and human risk.

What the Day Covers

All content reflects NICE guideline NG142, the Skills for Health End of Life Care Core Skills Education and Training Framework, and current guidance from NHS England throughout. Topics covered include:

  • What end of life care means and how it is defined, including the distinction between end-of-life, palliative care, and the last days of life
  • The care worker’s role and professional boundaries within the multidisciplinary team
  • Recognising physical and emotional changes as someone approaches death
  • Dignity, comfort, and person-centred support in the last days of life
  • DNAR, DNACPR, and ReSPECT forms at an awareness level: what they mean and, critically, what they do not mean
  • Advance Decisions to Refuse Treatment (ADRT) and Advance Care Planning: awareness-level understanding and when to escalate
  • Communication at the end of life: listening, silence, difficult conversations, and supporting someone frightened
  • Cultural, spiritual, and religious diversity in end-of-life care: how to ask rather than assume
  • Supporting families and loved ones before and after a death
  • Care after death: respecting the individual’s dignity, following organisational procedures, and supporting colleagues through the immediate aftermath
  • Staff grief and emotional well-being: permission to feel and pathways to support
  • Self-care in practice: practical approaches for staff who regularly work with people at the end of life

Every course is also built to include your organisation’s procedures for care after death, documentation, and escalation as standard.

How the Course Is Delivered

This course is available face-to-face at your workplace or chosen venue, or live online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Both formats are fully interactive. For particularly sensitive or mixed-experience groups, face-to-face delivery is recommended where possible, as the shared physical space supports the kind of reflective conversation this topic needs. Online delivery is a live session with the same discussion and trainer engagement as the room-based version, not a pre-recorded module.

Groups are capped at 12 to ensure every learner has sufficient space for the reflective discussion this topic generates. Sessions are built around your setting, the types of conditions and care journeys most common in your service, your internal procedures, and the specific cultural or spiritual diversity present in your service user group. We can also build in management-level content on supporting teams through the emotional demands of end-of-life work, and can deliver this course alongside Dementia Awareness, Mental Capacity Act, or Dignity in Care for a joined-up programme.

Delivery includes:

  • Discussion of real end-of-life care situations drawn from care settings, including scenarios around DNAR documents and staff grief that consistently surface in delivery
  • Reflective exercises that invite learners to examine their own feelings, assumptions, and responses with honesty and without judgment
  • Practical conversation about cultural and spiritual diversity, including how to ask rather than assume
  • Discussion of signposting and support routes for both the individuals and families being supported and the staff doing the supporting

Certification and Validity

On completion, learners receive a CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in End of Life Awareness.

A refresher is recommended every 2 to 3 years, or sooner following significant changes to guidance, organisational policy, or the care needs of individuals being supported. For services where end-of-life care is a regular and significant part of the work, building refresher training into the annual CPD cycle is good practice, both for compliance and for staff wellbeing. Our Dignity in Care and Dementia Care Level 2 training are natural companions for teams wanting to build a more complete end-of-life care programme.

Why Organisations Book With Prima Cura

Most training providers arrive with a course. We arrive with yours.

Before the day, we gather information about your workplace: your incident reporting forms, your internal procedures, and the specific hazards your team actually faces. On the day, your trainer works that into every scenario, every discussion, every practical exercise. If your staff work in a care home, they’re not practising on hypothetical office workers. If your team are lone workers, that context shapes how the session runs.

It means the training lands. Not because it was well-delivered in a generic sense, but because it was relevant to the people in the room and the situations they’ll actually encounter.

A few other things that matter to the organisations that book with us:

  • 98.9% learner satisfaction across all Prima Cura courses
  • All trainers hold Enhanced DBS certificates and maintain ongoing CPD
  • We advise honestly on the qualification level at the enquiry stage. If a different course is a better fit for your workforce, we’ll say so before you book, not after

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Where We Deliver

We deliver in-house training at your workplace or chosen venue across Manchester, Greater Manchester, and the wider North West. We also deliver nationally across England, including North England, South England, London, and Surrey.

All sessions are led by experienced Prima Cura Training instructors. Groups are capped at 12 per trainer to protect the quality of hands-on learning.

Our associate network means we can deliver across England. You can meet the team on our Associates page.

FAQs

Does a DNAR order mean a care worker should not provide first aid?

No. This is one of the most important things this course addresses. A DNAR or DNACPR order means do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It applies specifically to CPR. It does not mean withhold all care. It does not prevent a care worker from responding to a choking emergency, providing comfort care, or any other form of first aid or personal care. A ReSPECT form recommending no CPR carries the same scope. If a care worker is uncertain about what a document means in a specific situation, the correct response is to seek senior guidance immediately, not to withhold care. Getting this distinction wrong can cost a life.

Does this course address how care workers can process grief after losing a resident or service user?

Yes, and this is one of the most important parts of the course. Losing someone you have supported and cared for is a genuine loss, and care workers are rarely given permission or support to acknowledge that. This course addresses staff grief directly, including the difference between professional boundaries and suppressing emotion, what healthy grief looks like in a care work context, and how to access support both within the organisation and through external services. We deliver this training across Greater Manchester, the wider North West, and nationally, and the need for this conversation is consistent across every setting.

Does this course meet CQC expectations for end of life care?

Yes. The course supports compliance with CQC Regulation 9: Person-Centred Care and Regulation 10: Dignity and Respect, both of which apply directly to end of life care delivery. It also aligns with the Skills for Health End of Life Care Core Skills Education and Training Framework at Tier 2, which sets the standard for health and social care staff who regularly encounter individuals approaching the end of life. CQC inspectors look at whether staff can demonstrate safe, informed, and compassionate end of life practice. This course addresses all of those areas.

How does this course approach cultural and religious diversity in end of life care?

Carefully and without assumption. What a dignified death looks like varies significantly between individuals based on their cultural background, religious beliefs, and personal preferences. This course covers how to approach those differences with respect and genuine curiosity, including how to ask rather than assume, how to involve families appropriately, and how to seek guidance when a situation involves beliefs or practices the care worker is unfamiliar with. The approach is practical, not theoretical, and is built around the real diversity of people in care settings across Greater Manchester and nationally.

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Book or Enquire

Book your training or request a quote

Tell us your team size and your sector. We’ll come back with a quote, the right advice on qualification level, and a straight answer on whether this is the best course for your team.

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Our Commitment to Quality and Compliance

At Prima Cura Training, all courses reflect current UK guidance and best practice. All trainers are experienced professionals with relevant qualifications and ongoing CPD. Because many of the organisations we support work with vulnerable individuals, all trainers hold Enhanced DBS checks.

This course is reviewed against updates from NHS England, NICE, the Care Quality Commission, Skills for Care, and current UK legislation, including the Care Act 2014, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the Human Rights Act 1998, and the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Course content aligns with NICE guideline NG142 (End of life care for adults: service delivery), NICE guideline NG31 (Care of dying adults in the last days of life), and the Skills for Health End of Life Care Core Skills Education and Training Framework.

You can read more on our Quality Assurance and Compliance page.

Reviewed by Stephanie Austin, Owner and Lead Trainer, Prima Cura Training | 25+ years in health and social care | 15+ years as a trainer | Last reviewed: June 2026 | Next review: June 2027

This page is for general guidance only and reflects current UK legislation, NICE guidance, and sector best practice as of the date of review. It does not constitute clinical, legal, or medical advice. End of Life Awareness Training is an awareness-level course and does not replace clinical assessment, specialist palliative care intervention, or the advice of appropriately qualified healthcare professionals. Information about DNAR, DNACPR, ReSPECT forms, and Advance Decisions to Refuse Treatment is provided at an awareness level only. Care workers must always seek senior guidance when uncertain about the scope or application of any end of life documentation, and must act within their role and in accordance with their organisation’s policies and procedures. Where individuals or families require support regarding end of life planning, advance decisions, or legal matters, they should be referred to their GP, a specialist palliative care team, or an appropriate legal professional.

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