Everyone who cares for a dying person deserves the right skills to care well. We make that learning easy.
Expert-led palliative care education from Scotland's first hospice — beautifully filmed, built on the science of how people learn, and designed to take every practitioner from novice to expert.
Why it matters
Great end-of-life care starts with confident, well-prepared people.
Almost every health and care professional will support someone at the end of life — in a hospital ward, a GP practice, a care home or a family's living room. When they feel confident and well prepared, the difference for patients and families is enormous.
St Margaret of Scotland Hospice, Scotland's first hospice, is sharing its expertise through SPARKS, a new pathway of palliative care education that builds on the great work already happening in universities, colleges and care settings: expert-led, video-first, easy to fit into a working day, and designed to take every practitioner from novice to expert.
What it is
SPARKS: a centre of excellence for palliative care learning — carried by more than 75 years of practice.
St Margaret of Scotland Hospice SPARKS brings the clinical wisdom of St Margaret of Scotland Hospice to every professional who needs it. Its roots run back to the Religious Sisters of Charity, founded by Mary Aikenhead, whose hospices in Dublin and London were the tradition in which Dame Cicely Saunders shaped the modern hospice movement.
Now that tradition becomes a structured, accredited learning pathway: mini-lectures from hospice clinicians and academics, real case studies from the wards and the community, reflection, short assessments and refreshers — sold to the institutions that train and employ the workforce, and reinvested in care.
The SPARKS model
Six things every practitioner needs. Built into every module.
SPARKS stands for Skills, Practice, Assessment, Reflection, Knowledge and Support. It isn't just a name. It's how the platform is designed, and it's what good palliative care asks of every professional: to know, to do, to check, to think, and to look after each other. Tap a letter to see how it works.
The practical skills of palliative care, taught step by step and shown in real hospice settings: assessing pain and breathlessness, mouth care, anticipatory medicines, leading a family meeting.
Good intentions aren't enough at the bedside. Patients and families need people who know exactly what to do, and confidence in practical skills is what lets a professional stay calm and present when it matters most.
SPARKS in every module
The six elements run in the same order every time, so learners always know where they are and what comes next.
Learning that covers all six is learning that changes care. That's why it's the name on the door.
For the board
What this gives St Margaret's. Four outcomes from one platform.
SPARKS gives the hospice palliative care education that busy professionals actually finish, that rewards their time with recognised CPD, and that can earn its keep: first through the NHS and education, and in time through the private sector.
Learning people finish
Four-minute lectures built for the phone. Professionals learn on a break, on any device, and pick up where they left off.
CPD that rewards time and action
Every module logs CPD hours and ends with a reflection on one change to practice, plus a verifiable certificate for appraisal and revalidation.
A new income stream
Licensed to NHS boards, universities and care providers now, with a clear route into private care home groups, independent hospitals and home-care providers later.
A recognised centre of excellence
Scotland's first hospice becomes the name professionals link with palliative care education, at home and internationally.
Who it's for
Learning for every discipline.
Palliative care happens wherever people are cared for. Whatever their role, practitioners want to feel confident about what palliative care is, how to talk about dying, how to manage symptoms and how to support families through loss.
SPARKS supports the organisations that train and employ them — licensed by institution, with pathways tailored to each role and designed to sit alongside their existing teaching.
Universities & colleges
Nursing, medical, AHP and social work programmes adding a credible palliative care strand.
NHS boards, trusts & hospitals
Ward teams who care for people at the end of life every week.
GP practices & primary care
Recognising palliative needs early and planning care in the community.
Care homes & care at home
The front line of end-of-life care — with flexible learning that fits around shifts.
Social care & social work
Supporting people, families and carers through decisions, loss and grief.
Hospices
A shared, high-quality curriculum and mandatory training for hospice teams.
The pathway
From novice to expert — mapped to Scotland's national framework.
Every module is built against the five domains and four levels of the NES / SSSC palliative and end of life care learning framework, so learners and employers always know where they are, what comes next, and how it counts towards registration and CPD.
Framework: Enriching and Improving Experience — NHS Education for Scotland & Scottish Social Services Council, refreshed 2025 as the Palliative Care Education Framework.
What we'll build
Five strands of learning, one connected platform.
A core clinical pathway for the wider workforce, the hospice's own mandatory training made digital, real case studies that bring both to life — plus a curated expert series in supportive oncology and a strand exploring the philosophy and ethos at the heart of palliative care.
Palliative care, from first principles
Expert-led modules, each with learning outcomes, reflection points and assessment.
- The evolution of hospice care
- Fundamentals of palliative care
- Communication in palliative care
- Symptom assessment and management
- Understanding pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics
- Loss, grief and bereavement
Hospice essentials, made digital
Streamlined access, consistent delivery, and built-in refreshers and assessment.
- Mission effectiveness — lecture, feedback session & examples
- Health and safety — lecture
- Fire safety — lecture with walk-around visuals
- Infection prevention and control — with hospice locations & graphics
- Moving and handling — short on-site supplement
Real care, across every service
Short documentary-style films following patients, families and teams through each of the hospice's services.
- In-patient care — specialist care on the ward, including mobility and pain management
- Community palliative care — supporting patients and families at home
- Out-patient clinic — specialist assessment and review
- Clinical intervention clinic — planned treatment and procedures, explained
- Day hospice — living well, at the hospice and at home, with family
- 24/7 advice and support — help for patients, families and professionals, day and night
Supportive Oncology and Palliative Care
Curated by Professor Andrew Biankin, Regius Professor of Surgery, University of Glasgow
A professional series of discussions and lectures, with guest presenters interviewed by Prof Biankin — giving healthcare professionals insight into this fast-moving area of palliative medicine.
- From terminal to chronic — what long-term survival means for care
- Complex symptoms in survivorship — including the side effects of successful treatment
- Emerging methodologies and oncological interventions — explained for practice
- Precision oncology — how molecular insight is shaping treatment decisions
- Guest presenter interviews — leading clinicians and researchers in conversation
Philosophy, ethos and principles of palliative and end of life care
Modular content used alongside expert lectures and featured interviews, opening up wider access and supporting spiritual and psychosocial development — broadening understanding across the healthcare community as well as among specialists.
- The principles of palliative care — dignity, compassion and the whole person
- Spiritual care — what matters to the person, across faiths and none
- Psychosocial care — supporting patients, families and carers
- Ethics at the end of life — values, choices and difficult decisions
- Presence and reflection — sustaining the people who give care
Accelerated titles in development
Further modules prioritised with the hospice's clinical and education leads.
Expert series · Supportive oncology
Cancer is becoming a chronic condition. Care has to catch up.
Modern treatments are increasingly transforming cancer from a terminal illness into a long-term condition. That is a monumental shift — and it is creating a rapidly growing population of long-term survivors living with complex, treatable symptoms, often including the side effects of the very treatments that succeeded.
Supporting them calls for supportive oncology and enhanced palliative care: earlier, better-integrated and informed by where oncology is heading next. This series gives healthcare professionals a front-row seat to that conversation.
Curated discussions and lectures, with guest presenters interviewed by Professor Andrew Biankin.
Professor Andrew Biankin
Regius Professor of Surgery, University of Glasgow
- Executive Director, ICGC-ARGO (International Cancer Genome Consortium Accelerating Research in Genomic Oncology)
- Specialist Consultant in Precision Oncology and Therapeutic Development
- Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist and Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Academy of Medical Sciences
- Author of 160+ articles, including seminal work on cancer, genomics and precision medicine
- Currently focused on implementing precision oncology practice in health systems internationally
Curated discussions
In-depth conversations on the questions shaping supportive oncology today.
Expert lectures
Focused lectures translating the latest evidence into clinical understanding.
Guest interviews
Leading clinicians and researchers interviewed by Prof Biankin.
Practice-ready insight
Emerging methodologies and interventions, framed for the people delivering care.
A focus area of growing importance to partners in oncology — delivered under the same independence principles as the rest of the platform.
See SPARKS working · Strand 4 example module
The Cancer Journey. One module, built to show how every module will work.
We've built a working example of the first SPARKS module in the expert series, with placeholder content. Prof Biankin and invited guests take every kind of healthcare professional from diagnosis to the last days of life, in short lectures made for the phone in their pocket. Open it on your own phone and try it.
- 1Register in a minuteOn the hospice website, with profession and setting recorded for CPD.
- 2Pick up where you left offProgress and time left, on any device.
- 3Watch four focused minutesEngage, understand, recap, apply. Captions and transcript.
- 4Check it stuckThree recap questions with instant feedback.
- 5Bring it togetherShort clinical scenarios, with feedback rather than pass or fail.
- 6Reflect and certifyOne change to practice, then a CPD certificate.
Example only: placeholder content subject to clinical sign-off, with colours and logo to be matched to the hospice brand.
Our work in healthcare education
We've done this before. Here's how it looks.
For medical organisations, universities and health systems, we've turned serious clinical knowledge into learning people choose to watch. Pick an example to see what we made, how it worked, and where the same approach fits St Margaret's.
Bleak Practice
An original drama series for a medical and dental defence organisation, based on real clinical scenarios. Doctors, dentists and their teams watch a case unfold, then work through what went wrong and how to handle it.
The story comes first and the learning follows. Drama creates the stakes, the debrief turns them into practice. It's MDDUS's most engaged-with training by far, with measurable improvement in clinical outcomes recorded across the membership.
Strand 3 case studies and the hardest conversations in palliative care, told through real situations rather than slides.
Formats that fit around every module
Each module combines the right formats for the subject and the learner.
Peer-to-peer learning
The best teachers are often the people doing the work.
Alongside expert lectures, the platform grows a library of short peer content: nurses, carers, GPs, social workers and hospice teams sharing what they've learned at the bedside, in the community and with families.
We've built this before. For LEO Pharma we paired field training with short, reflective peer-to-peer sessions. Managers could see progress and measure retention long after the initial training, and usage data from over 200 staff showed where the training hot spots were and what to make next. MDDUS's Bleak Practice drama works the same way: a real scenario, then a shared debrief.
◆Practice stories
Short films of colleagues describing a real situation, what they did, and what they would do differently.
◆Reflective peer sessions
Short small-group sessions after a module, where colleagues agree how they'll apply it. CPD time becomes action on the ward.
◆Clinically reviewed
Every contribution checked by hospice educators before it goes live, so quality and safety never slip.
◆Evidence for managers
Progress, retention over time and training hot spots, so you can see what's working and what to build next.
How it works
Hospice expertise in. Learning that scales, out.
One production model turns the knowledge already inside St Margaret's into a complete programme — captured once, and reused everywhere it's needed.
Capture the knowledge
Studio and on-location filming with hospice consultants, nurses, educators, academics, patients and families. Interview-led formats mean minimal preparation for busy clinicians.
Design the learning
Each session becomes mini-lectures, case studies, reflection points and short assessments — sequenced against the framework and built on the science of how people learn and retain.
Deliver, refresh & measure
Delivered through partners' learning platforms or our own, with certificates and CPD — plus clear evidence of who is learning, how deeply, and what is improving in practice.
How the set-up works
Filming made simple for busy clinicians. Three ways to start.
We handle the scripting, instructional design and production, so your experts give us their knowledge, not their week. Every option includes planning, filming, editing, the learning build (recaps, scenarios and a CPD certificate) and launch on the hospice website.
One complete module
Our mobile studio sets up at St Margaret's, so presenters don't travel and the day fits around clinics.
- Up to 3 presenters filmed in one day
- Interview-led formats, with minimal preparation
- Delivers 1 full module, like The Cancer Journey
Output1 module
Two complete modules
Two studio days with presenters booked into set slots, so nobody gives up more time than their own session.
- Ideal for the core pathway and the expert series
- Studio lighting, sound and graphics for broadcast-quality lectures
- Delivers 2 full modules, each with its own assessment and certificate
Output2 modules
Mandatory training, digitised
A full week at the hospice capturing the sessions every member of staff has to complete.
- Mission effectiveness, health and safety, fire safety, infection prevention and control, moving and handling
- Walk-around filming in real hospice locations
- Becomes Strand 2, with built-in refreshers and assessment
OutputStrand 2 library
What we need from the hospice: a clinical lead to sign off content, presenters' time on the day, and access to the locations we film in.
Why it works
Learning designed on evidence — and on emotion.
Palliative care is as much about how practitioners feel as what they know. Our design approach combines decades of research into multimedia learning with the storytelling craft of broadcast film-making.
Empirically informed pedagogy
Core multimedia principles — coherence, signalling, segmenting, modality, embodiment and personalisation (Mayer, 2021) — are built into every script, edit and graphic.
Threshold concepts, unlocked
Learning journeys structured to break down the ideas that hold practitioners back, matched to each learner's stage from novice to expert.
Made to hold attention
Content has to coexist with Netflix and TikTok. Narrative arc, real voices and cinematic quality keep learners engaged emotionally as well as intellectually.
Ready for AI and for measurement
Every piece is designed to stand alone or recombine, so it can power personalised AI-driven pathways and be tested for learning impact across different learner profiles.
Delivery, sorted
Into every learning platform — or on its own.
Universities, NHS boards and care providers all use different systems. Every module is built to standards so it drops into the platform an institution already runs — or is delivered directly through the hospice's own branded portal.
Works with existing LMS. Built to SCORM / xAPI standards for Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard and NHS learning platforms.
A branded hospice portal. For care homes, practices and smaller organisations without a platform of their own.
CPD that counts. Certificates and evidence to support professional registration, revalidation and post-registration learning.
Tracking and reporting. Completion, assessment results and engagement by organisation, role and level.
Built for translation. Modular design ready for subtitling, voice-over and multiple languages.
Route to market
Proven in Scotland. Shared with the world.
A deliberate, staged roll-out that builds evidence, reputation and income at every step, so St Margaret's becomes a recognised centre of excellence in palliative care education.
Test and prove
Launch with the hospice's own teams and Scottish partners — universities, NHS boards, care homes and social work — and measure the impact.
Scale across the four nations
Extend to NHS trusts, hospices and education providers across the UK and Ireland, mapped to each nation's frameworks.
Multilingual and global
Translated, culturally adapted pathways for health systems and institutions worldwide.
Three ways the platform earns its keep
Funding the build
Founding education partners can help fund the first modules.
Alongside the hospice's own investment, a small number of organisations from across the palliative care sector can be invited to support the platform through educational grants. Their support speeds up production and widens access, while the hospice keeps full control of every module.
What partners receive
- Named recognitionAcknowledged as an educational supporter on the platform, at launch and in partner communications.
- Impact reportingRegular reports on reach, completion and learning gain across professions and regions.
- A place at the startFounding partner status as the platform launches in Scotland and scales internationally.
- Shared purposeA visible, lasting contribution to the quality of care people receive at the end of life.
Independent by design
All content is led and approved by the hospice's clinical and education teams.
- No editorial input or content review by sponsors
- No product, brand or promotional messaging
- Support declared openly on the platform
- Structured in line with the ABPI Code of Practice
Partnership packages are tailored to each organisation. We'd be glad to talk you through the options.
Production & learning design partner
Built with Elementary Spark — serious learning, at scale, for years.
Elementary Spark is the hospice's e-learning consultant and production partner. From professional-standards content with MDDUS to our Learning Sparks studio partnership with Arizona State University, we've produced over 2,000 e-learning pieces for leading universities, foundations and health organisations.
Jamie Smith, Creative Director
Film-maker and communications leader across business, education and creative outputs, leading the development process end to end.
Supported by a global team of educators, instructional designers, scriptwriters, animators, graphic designers, directors and a professional production crew — and partnerships with education leaders and research scientists in digital pedagogy and AI in online learning.
Better knowledge. Better care. A better journey for every patient and family.
Try the example module on your phone, then let's agree the first SPARKS modules and a filming date, and take more than 75 years of St Margaret's expertise to the professionals who need it.
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