• Hospice UK Digital Technology Maturity Assessment 2026

  • Aims

    Our overall aim is to have a baseline assessment of the current state of the hospice sector from a technology/digital transformation perspective. This is the third year running the survey. There are 3 beneficiaries:

    1. Member hospices will have an understanding of where they are and a comparison to other hospice members to help with planning and prioritisation.

    2. Hospice UK will have insights to help with national campaigning, funding for hospices e.g. grant programmes for technology projects, determining most useful content for learning events and resources the Innovation Hub.

    3. Technology suppliers in the hospice sector will have insights to help them develop more tailored and effective services for the sector.

  • Definition of Technology

    Technology is used in the assessment as a catch all term.

    It is a short-hand for all things that might be considered in the areas of digital or IT.

    It includes systems, infrastructure, website and online services and more.

    Some questions specifically mention IT or digital, because the differentiation is useful in some circumstances. In these cases, "digital" will be concerned with website and internet technologies, and "IT" will be concerned with infrastructure and business systems.

  • Approach

    Hospice UK will gather and analyse the data, produce reports and host events to highlight the main findings.

    Sponsors are supporting this work as part of their marketing activity in the sector. Hospice UK is not recommending or endorsing the sponsor or any other technology provider mentioned in the survey. We thank this year's sponsors: CT, 365tribe, Digital Wonderlab, ForGood.Tech and Trident for their involvement. We would not be able to carry out this work without them. As you work through the survey, you will find links to useful case studies and thought provoking articles provided by our sponsors

    Hospice UK will produce a summary report for publication and send each participating hospice a tailored report based on their submission.

    The assessment is designed to enable Hospice UK to repeat it in the future to track progress over time. We first ran this survey in 2024.

    Some questions gather facts whilst others are more subjective assessments of the hospice's current situation. Many questions are statements to agree/disagree with. Most questions are optional.

  • Taking Part

    The more responses we receive, the more everyone benefits from the analysis. Please encourage others to take part and to complete all sections of the assessment.

    One submission per hospice.

    Ideally, the assessment should be carried out by a group of people from different areas of the organisation and at different levels.

    Discussing the assessment as a group is a useful exercise in itself. Depending on the approach, the assessment could take between 20 and 60 minutes.

    There are no right or wrong answers.

    Where you are not sure, your 'gut feel' is probably good enough.

    Do not provide personal or confidential information, we ask for a contact name, job title and email address in case we have follow-up questions. We will not share contact information with third-parties without permission.

    Each member will receive a report of its responses and how this compares to all respondents. Individual reports will not be shared with other members or other organisations without permission.

    A 'state of the sector' report will be published by Hospice UK and made available publicly. There will be nothing in the report to identify any hospice or any individuals.

    Hospice UK will retain the raw data for further in-depth analysis and for comparison with future assessments. Sponsors will have access to the raw data, to carry out their own analysis, but this will be anonymised.

    Data will be shared with Hospice UK members via the Hospice UK Technology Leaders Network to provide a useful research source e.g. to find out which CRM systems others are using. We will share the hospice name and any factual data about systems or suppliers in the spirit of colleagues being able to reach out to each other for advice. We will anonymise answers to the subjective questions, and factual questions around budgets and staffing levels.

    Members will be asked to opt-in to receive marketing from the sponsor and/or other technology providers in the sector.

     

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  • Intro


  • How one hospice improved performance and connectivity

  • Rows
  • Rows

  • Save and return later

    Select Save and Exit to save your progress. A unique link will be emailed to you so that you can continue or edit your survey later.

    Important: The original survey link will start a new response. To continue or edit an existing response, you must use the link provided in the email.

  • Strategy

  • Digital excellence hospice case studies

     

  • 10. Which of these stages best describes your organisation in regards to digital?*
  • 11. What are the biggest challenges your organisation currently faces in relation to digital? (Up to 3 choices)
  • 12. Which of the following do you see as the biggest blocker to successful execution of digital transformation within your organisation: (Tick all that apply)
  • Rows
  • 21. Which of these are included in your future technology strategy/plans?
  • 22. Who is taking responsibility for helping your organisation to progress with digital transformation? (Tick all that apply)
  • 23. Has digital become a higher or lower priority in your organisation in the last 12 months?

  • 24. Which areas of your organisation are the highest priorities for technology investment? (Choose 5 and rank in order of priority with 1 being highest priority)

  • 25. Do you think you have adequate internal resources to support your technology strategy?
  • 26. Do you expect to undertake a digital transformation project in the near future?
  • 27. Do you have a clear understanding of your technology health - i.e. how systems and infrastructure are performing against targets?
  • 28. Which of these best describes which stage you are at with AI?

  • Save and return later

    Select Save and Exit to save your progress. A unique link will be emailed to you so that you can continue or edit your survey later.

    Important: The original survey link will start a new response. To continue or edit an existing response, you must use the link provided in the email.

  • Resources - Budget

  • iThink365 success stories

     

  • To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements …

  • 33. We clearly understand and budget for the ongoing costs of supporting, maintaining and improving our technology
  • 34. We are investing more money into technology improvements this year than in previous years (in addition to inflationary increases)
  • 35. We budget specifically for Cyber Security improvements

  • Save and return later

    Select Save and Exit to save your progress. A unique link will be emailed to you so that you can continue or edit your survey later.

    Important: The original survey link will start a new response. To continue or edit an existing response, you must use the link provided in the email.

  • Resources - Technical Expertise

  • Hospice digital maturity resources hub

     

  • Rows

  • Save and return later

    Select Save and Exit to save your progress. A unique link will be emailed to you so that you can continue or edit your survey later.

    Important: The original survey link will start a new response. To continue or edit an existing response, you must use the link provided in the email.

  • Current IT landscape

  • Practical ways fundraisers can leverage AI today

     

  • 44. Which Finance system do you use? Tick all that apply
  • 45. Which CRM system do you use? Tick all that apply
  • 47. Which Retail system do you use? Tick all that apply
  • 48. Which Patient Management system do you use? Tick all that apply
  • 49. Which HR System do you use? Tick all that apply
  • 50. Which system do you use for staff rotas and scheduling? Tick all that apply
  • 52. Which administration and communication system do you use? Tick all that apply
  • 55. Which managed service provider do you use (if any) e.g. for helpdesk, security services etc.
  • 56. Do you use automation to significantly reduce the time and effort taken for repetitive tasks?
  • 57. Overall, which statement best describes your business database systems (e.g. CRM, Finance, HR, Patient Management, Retail)
  • 58. Which of the following best describes your technology infrastructure:
  • 59. Which of the following best describes your technology infrastructure:
  • 60. Which of the following best describes how your technology is managed:
  • 61. Which parts of your technology service do you outsource to some extent? Tick all that apply
  • 62. Do your in-house technology team receive regular training to ensure their technical skills are up-to-date?
  • 63. Do all of your colleagues and volunteers receive regular training on data protection and information security?
  • 64. Do you hold any of the following security accreditations? (tick all that apply):
  • 65. Do you regularly review technology risks, especially cyber security, at Board/Committee level?
  • 66. Do you have a clearly documented technology disaster recovery / business continuity plan that is tested regularly?

  • Save and return later

    Select Save and Exit to save your progress. A unique link will be emailed to you so that you can continue or edit your survey later.

    Important: The original survey link will start a new response. To continue or edit an existing response, you must use the link provided in the email.

  • Technology Change Projects

  • How hospices are navigating technology change

     

  • 67. Do you have a resource dedicated to project management of digital transformation projects?
  • 68. Do you make sure key internal staff have enough time to participate in IT projects (e.g., by allocating additional resources for day-to-day tasks)?
  • 69. Do you have the skills you need to successfully deliver technology changes?
  • 70. Do you have the budgets you need to successfully deliver technology changes?
  • 71. Do your technology improvement projects deliver the expected scope, on time and on budget?
  • 72. Do you have a structured approach to technology procurement?
  • 73. What methods do you use to identify new suppliers for IT and digital transformation projects?

  • 74. Which of the following criteria are most important when selecting a supplier?
    Please choose your top 5 and rank them in order of importance, with 1 being the most important.

  • Select Submit Survey to submit your completed response.

    After submission, you will receive an email containing a unique link that can be used to review or edit your response.

    Important: The original survey link will start a new response. To review or edit your submitted response, you must use the unique link provided in the email.
     

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