Councils could save money from end of life care packages, if those in social work jobs are given more training in talking to people nearing death, a new study finds.

According to the National End of Life Care Programme report, if social workers had conversations about end-of-life care earlier, costly packages could be avoided.

The report was based on 12 pilot sites, each of them conducted local training needs and analysis and developed plans to address gaps. The research found that most staff working in adult social care were in a role that required them to support people at the end of life.

Katie Lindsey, project manager told Community Care: "Because people didn't understand that they were delivering end of life care, they weren't participating in the training that is there. There's an assumption that the social care workforce has communication skills training and doesn't need any more, but generally people said they do."

According to Lindsey, personalised end of life care could only be delivered if staff had the confidence to start conversations early with patients about what was needed.

Tes Smith, the programme's social care leader, added: "Social care costs for people at the end of life can escalate in the last few weeks because social workers are anxious and feel they have to provide bigger care packages."

The programme proposed that social care bodies consider including end of life communication skills in core professional training.