Introduction Ardgowan Hospice has delivered specialist palliative care services to the people of Inverclyde for the past 35 years. Potential recipients of the services have had to travel to our hospice buildings, this coupled with the need for professional referral has limited the range of people who could benefit from much needed support. Traditionally we have offered support through in-patient stays, day services including therapy, bereavement, family and child support along with home care services. This model has been unchanged since the hospice opened.

Aims With the support of the Big Lottery we will transform the services that are offered to the people of Inverclyde. To make them more accessible, more inclusive and reaching deeper and wider into communities, in essence being able to offer our support where, when and how they want, services delivered.

Method Through a consultation across communities and in collaboration with partners we have an understanding of the current view of what the hospice provides and the view of how care should be delivered in the future. This engagement was via online survey and hardcopy format distributed across Inverclyde. 21 focus groups and six open groups were held where participants were guided by the questionnaire in an open discussion.

Results Response to the survey was 41%. Over 500 comments were received over the course of the consultation from both individual responses and group settings. The analysis of the needs and wishes is now being carried out, this will determine how we will transform the services to meet the needs.

Conclusion On completion of the analysis Ardgowan Hospice will work collaboratively with communities and partners to develop appropriate responses and implement the necessary changes to achieve the project goals, reviewing delivery across the four year term to ensure that services continue to meet needs.