Background A 2015 report by Health Education England on future education and training of registered nurses and care assistants in England emphasised the importance of assuring predictable and sustainable access to ongoing learning and development (Health Education England. Raising the bar: Shape of Caring: Health Education England’s response [Internet] Health Education England, 2015). Collaboration in hospices has been effective in research (Leung, Brigden. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2016;6:397–398), joint mandatory and management learning programmes (Scott-Ralphs, Glackin, Clarke. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2021;11:A4) and delivering external education (Evans, Burden, Moorey, et al. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2022;12:A11). Building on previous collaborative practice, three hospices developed a shared practice educator role focused on clinical practice development.

Aims The objectives for the role were to agree a standardised matrix of clinical skills for clinical staff, share best practice and resources and collaborate in the development of shared learning opportunities across three hospices within one region in England.

Methods The shared Practice Educator adopted the following framework:

• Identify and agree required skills for clinical staff delivering end-of-life care.

• Develop positive working relationships across hospices.

• Benchmark and gather baseline information across hospices.

• Summarise individual and shared training needs and priorities.

• Develop strategic plan for delivering training programmes.

Results The impact of the role has reached beyond agreeing a standardised matrix of skills and identifying the learning needs of the hospices. It has provided an effective link for communicating and sharing information and best practice as well as elevated the profile of practice education. Through sharing resources and experience it has also accelerated the development of individual hospice projects related to competence frameworks, an end of life care passport and preceptorship programme.

Conclusion Effective sharing of best practice and standardisation of education across hospices can help streamline processes and reduce repetition of tasks. This shared role has offered the hospices the opportunity to increase the impact of clinical education in a cost-effective way; information and experience has been shared effectively and it has enabled the hospices and the practice educator to begin to influence the learning culture of the organisations.