Since 2006, three West Midlands hospices – Birmingham St Mary's Hospice, Compton Hospice and St Giles Hospice – have been working in partnership, as the West Midlands End of Life Education Consortium, to deliver comprehensive programmes of high quality, specialist training and education in End of Life and Palliative Care for health and social care professionals. The hospice teaching teams are highly skilled educationalists in their own right, coming from a wide range of backgrounds, including nursing, social work, psychotherapy, counselling and the allied health professions and include members of national standing who act as facilitators for the National Cancer Action Team's Advanced Communication Skills Training programme.
By working in collaboration, the Consortium has greater flexibility and overall capacity to be responsive to identified gaps, to changing workforce demands and to new service developments. The Consortium brings together three teams, creating an extensive resource which can be enhanced by numerous opportunities to share teaching staff and to draw upon additional specialist practitioners.

The Consortium provides clinically focused and integrated education programmes at a local level, which reflect the needs expressed by commissioners and by health and social care practitioners. The Consortium has conference centre facilities and bespoke training rooms with modern IT facilities and education tools on hospice sites in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Lichfield and Sutton Coldfield. The co-ordinated planning of programmes across the Consortium improves access and value for money, reduces duplication and provides increased opportunities for education and training.

The Consortium education programmes are underpinned by research, evaluation and evidence-based practice; responding to identified gaps and reflecting the needs expressed by local commissioners and by health and social care practitioners, both specialist and generalist. The courses and study days are designed to ensure appropriate domains are addressed within the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework and Related Development Review, the NICE Guidance for Supportive and Palliative Care, the National Workforce Competences (Skills for Health and Skills for Care), the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) and the End of Life Care Strategy. The co-ordinated planning of programmes across the Consortium improves access, reduces duplication and provides increased opportunities for education and training.

The Consortium has extensive experience of providing clinical placements for many professions and disciplines and is well positioned to act as a "champion" to promote inter-agency and multi-disciplinary approaches to education and to care provision. The Consortium has strong links and working partnerships with a wide collaborative network; professional bodies, Higher Education Institutions, care organisations, schools and colleges, patient and carer groups and the general public.