GSF accreditation in care homes: End-of-life care guide

For many people, a care home becomes their home for their final years of life. Providing high-quality person-centred end-of-life care is therefore an essential part of the support residents and their families should be able to expect. If you are researching how to choose a care home, end-of-life care priorities will naturally be top of mind.

Outstanding end-of-life support begins with confident, skilled teams who understand what matters most to the people they care for. While care homes provide compassionate support every day, the right framework can help Gold Standards Framework care homes deliver consistent, proactive care across their services.

What is the Gold Standards Framework?

The Gold Standards Framework (GSF) is a registered charity that has supported the generalist workforce in providing high-quality end-of-life care for more than 25 years.

When you ask what GSF means for care homes, it comes down to structured service improvement. Rather than just offering standard end-of-life care training for staff, the GSF Care Homes Quality Improvement Programme is a practical, evidence-based pathway. It helps care home teams provide proactive, personalised, and well-coordinated care for people in the final stages of life, whatever their condition.

For care homes, GSF empowers teams to recognise residents who may be approaching the final stages of life, have open and honest conversations to understand their wishes and preferences, and plan and coordinate care around what matters most to them.

What does GSF mean for a care home?

GSF is more than an end-of-life care training course. It is a service improvement programme that supports care homes to develop staff knowledge and confidence while embedding a consistent approach across the organisation.

Staff learn how to recognise changing needs, contribute to advance care planning, support residents and families, and communicate effectively with GPs, community teams and other professionals.

For residents and families, this can mean greater confidence that end-of-life care is being considered proactively and that individual wishes and preferences are understood.

“They took the fear away and cleverly took away the need for me to be mum’s carer, so that I could simply be her daughter again.” Family Member, Brook House Care Home, Leicestershire

GSF in practice: a resident-centred approach

The impact of the GSF approach is evident in individual residents’ experiences. A recent GSF care home case study follows a resident whose health changed significantly after moving into a care home. Initially independent and socially active, she later received a breast cancer diagnosis and became increasingly frail.

Through team discussions, assessment and GSF’s systematic approach, staff recognised changes in her condition and adapted her care. When she was ready, she went on to complete an Advance Care Plan with support from the care home, her daughter, GP and other professionals, clearly expressing her wishes for end-of-life care.

After a serious fall, the care team reviewed her wishes, and she chose to remain in the care home rather than return to the hospital for further admissions. Her care focused on comfort and symptom management, with anticipatory medication, GP reviews and district nursing support in place.

Importantly, person-centred care continued beyond clinical needs. When she could no longer walk by the river, something she had enjoyed, staff found other ways to recreate the experience. Her family, friends, and staff surrounded her, and she died peacefully in the care home with her family beside her.

The case illustrates how assessment, advance care planning, communication, collaborative working and compassionate care can come together to support a resident’s wishes throughout their final stages of life.

Read the full GSF Care Homes Case Study 2025.

What difference can GSF make?

97% of accredited care homes report improved care experiences, while 95% of staff report greater confidence and teamwork (GSF Impact Survey). The programme also supports better coordination and communication and can help reduce unnecessary hospital admissions.

A key systemic benefit of reducing hospital admissions that care home GSF implementation achieves is keeping residents in their preferred place of care. Research shows that 56% of healthcare expenditure for people in their last year of life is spent on emergency hospital care (Nuffield Trust, 2025). Reducing avoidable admissions benefits both the individual and the wider health system.

Good end-of-life care is about more than statistics. A good outcome in a person-centred approach might be avoiding an unwanted hospital admission. It might also mean helping someone stay somewhere familiar, supporting an important wish, or ensuring they feel safe, listened to, and cared for.

GSF encourages care homes to consider both measurable outcomes and people’s experiences of care.

“Staff are more efficient and more proactive now. They identify the symptoms and take action based on this. The overall number of hospital admissions has reduced because of GSF.” Kenilworth Grange, Warwickshire

The wider GSF evidence base includes research, evaluations, impact assessments, case studies and real-world examples from care homes and other health and social care settings. Explore further GSF evidence and impact.

What does GSF accreditation involve?

Training is the first step in the GSF improvement journey. Care homes can then progress to GSF Accreditation, showing they have embedded the approach in practice. The robust accreditation process has four main elements:

The GSF awards the Quality Hallmark Award to successful care homes and recognises them at the annual GSF Conference and Awards.

Accreditation lasts for three years, after which care homes can register for reaccreditation. Organisations that continue to reaccredit can achieve Platinum status, recognising sustained commitment to the GSF approach.

“Achieving Gold Standards Framework accreditation is a significant milestone for our home and reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering the highest standards of compassionate, person-centred care.” Highcliffe Nursing Home, Dorset

If you are choosing a care home

GSF accreditation can be one useful indicator to consider alongside other aspects of quality and care. A GSF-accredited care home has undertaken a structured training and improvement programme and has demonstrated through accreditation that it has embedded the GSF approach in practice.

Families may want to ask care homes how they approach advance care planning, how they support residents and families during the final stages of life, and how they work with GPs and other health professionals when a resident’s needs change.

To find a full list of GSF Accredited Care Homes, please visit the GSF website.

Free resources for thinking ahead

Planning is not only something care providers need to consider. Everyone can benefit from having conversations about what matters to them and what they would want if their health changes.

GSF provides free resources to help people and families begin these conversations, including Advance Care Planning in 5 Simple Steps and our Thinking Ahead booklet. These resources can help people consider their wishes and preferences and provide a starting point for conversations with family members and those involved in their care.

For care home providers

For care homes looking to improve their approach to end-of-life care, GSF offers a structured pathway from training and implementation through to accreditation, reaccreditation, and ongoing service improvement.

The programme provides practical tools, education and support to help teams build confidence, develop consistent systems, measure impact and demonstrate sustained improvements in care.

Our vision is that every person in the UK can live well before they die and die well in the place and manner of their choosing.

Find out more about GSF Training and Accreditation and explore how GSF could support your wider service improvement goals