Three and a half years ago, Tim Daly was given just a few months to live. Born with learning disabilities, he later developed cancer, which kept returning.

Despite being very sick, Tim can still live at home with his mum Valerie, because of support from his palliative care nurse Phoebe Mooney.

“It’s really sad to see him deteriorate,” Phoebe says during a visit to Tim.

“When I first started seeing him he was independently mobile in his wheelchair. He would take lots of videos. He’d be super, super chatty.”

It is clear Tim and Phoebe share a special bond, but working in such an emotionally demanding role can be challenging.

“I’m not going to lie, I do cry quite a lot at work,” Phoebe says. “Particularly when things don’t go so well, which they don’t at times.”

Tim’s mother Valerie Daly is 82 and says she wouldn’t be able to keep Tim at home without the support she gets from St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham, southeast London, where Phoebe works.

“I couldn’t do this without them,” she says. “It’s just knowing that there’s somebody there. Somebody who cares. Somebody who knows Tim.”

The support Valerie and Tim get is far from guaranteed across the UK.

As MPs consider legalising assisted dying, with a bill being introduced to parliament today, the quality of the country’s end-of-life care is being questioned.

“It’s really important we’re talking about funding for hospices at the same time,” says Jan Noble, the director of quality and innovation at St Christopher’s.

“Because people need to know that they’re going to get the right symptom control and support if they are approaching the end of life. And actually it’s not all about assisted dying.

“People are fearful because at the moment hospices throughout the country haven’t got the adequate funding, which means care can be a postcode lottery.”

St Christopher’s Hospice neither supports nor opposes a change in the law, but the hospice sector is a strong voice in the debate.

Hospices rely on charity to survive, with the government providing only around a third of their funding.

The sector has concerns about whether the health system could cope with the additional pressure that assisted dying would bring.

“While it’s not for us to take a view either way, what we would say is that this is a very fundamental change to consider introducing into a system which is already under really significant stress,” says Charlie King, deputy director of external affairs at Hospice UK.

“We’ve got hospices who are cutting back their services already, making frontline staff redundant, because they’re no longer able to fund those services.

“Whether or not assisted dying is introduced by this government, we must fix the end-of-life care system in the UK,” he said.

“This government has inherited huge challenges in the hospice sector, as well as a £22bn black hole in the public finances, so these problems will take time to fix,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said.

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“Whilst the majority of palliative and end-of-life care is provided by the NHS, we recognise the vital role voluntary organisations including hospices play in providing support to people at end of life and their families.

“We are determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and hospices will have a big role to play in that shift.”

Lynda Browne, 59, has experienced the best and worst of end-of-life care.

Her mother died peacefully and comfortably at a Marie Curie Hospice, but her aunt Mary chose to die at home and Lynda was devastated by the lack of care she received.

“We had to buy her incontinence pads, we had to buy different creams because the deliveries weren’t regular or there was nothing available or you couldn’t get through,” she says.

“We had to chase everyone for everything and it’s just so tiring all the time having to fight.”

It’s a problem palliative care doctors say needs to be urgently addressed.

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“We only get partial funding from the NHS,” says Dr Sarah Wells, medical director for the Marie Curie Hospice West Midlands.

“We’re having to rely on fun runs and bake sales and our charity shops to raise money to provide great end-of-life care for people.”

Marie Curie, like St Christopher’s and Hospice UK, has a neutral position on assisted dying.

“We need to be talking about death, dying and bereavement,” says Dr Wells. “What we’re not neutral on is the need for sustainable funding.”

NHS staff working in England will be able to anonymously report their colleagues for sexual harassment from today, as health bosses warned inappropriate behaviour “will not be tolerated”.

The health service also plans to bring in more pastoral support, and even special leave, for people who have suffered sexual misconduct at work.

It comes after a Sky News investigation heard harassment and assault is “rife” in the ambulance service.

Many dozens of paramedics have now spoken up about a culture in which being groped or being the victim of inappropriate comments and jokes is commonplace.

Some women even claimed to have been threatened with rape, or pressured into sexual acts to keep their jobs, while one female paramedic tried to take her own life after being locked in the back of an ambulance and sexually assaulted by a colleague.

Whistleblowers also claimed when they raised concerns they were punished or ostracised.

But NHS England has warned that sexual misconduct is “a problem right across the health service”, and other workforces have come under scrutiny.

In a survey last September almost a third of female surgeons who responded said they had been sexually assaulted by a colleague, and two thirds claimed to have been the target of sexual harassment.

NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard called this behaviour “unacceptable” and said that from today an online reporting tool will allow staff to report abuse anonymously. The reports will then be assessed by HR teams and investigated.

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The NHS also plans to bring in pastoral support for people who have experienced sexual abuse, with special leave available if needed. Staff are also being urged to complete new training on what to do if they see or are told about sexual misconduct.

Amanda Pritchard added: “We must do everything in our power to ensure our staff feel able to speak up, and have absolute confidence that they will be given the support they need when they do.

“There is absolutely no place for sexual misconduct or abuse of any kind within the NHS – a place where staff come to work every day to provide compassionate care and support to others, and we know that women are more likely to be affected – this is unacceptable, and we must not tolerate it.”

The NHS said the new policy covers all sexual misconduct at work – whether in an NHS setting, a virtual environment or elsewhere.

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It can include many things from sexual assault or rape to sexual comments or jokes, showing sexual pictures and staring at someone in a sexual way.

In this year’s NHS Staff Survey, almost 26,000 staff said they’d been the victim of assault, touching, sexualised or inappropriate conversation or jokes from their colleagues.

Dr Chelcie Jerwick is the co-founder of Surviving in Scrubs, a campaign group that highlights sexual harassment in the NHS. She believes many more cases go unreported but that the anonymous system is a great way to give people options to come forward.

“I think that there is definitely a culture of tolerance of these behaviours and attitudes within the NHS.

“I know from my own personal experience of trying to raise complaints that it can be really difficult, not only in order to kind of speak up, but also the logistics of how you raise a complaint. Is that to your consultant, your line manager? Do you go directly to HR?

“It’s really hard to navigate and it can be really scary. So, it’s really great to see NHS England providing this anonymous way of reporting now.”

The former head of the British Army, General Sir Mike Jackson has died aged 80.

Sir Mike, known as ‘Jacko’, died on Tuesday surrounded by his family, the Army said.

The father-of-three led the Army during the allied invasion of Iraq in 2003 after serving in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.

The British Army said in a tribute: “It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the death of General Sir Mike Jackson GCB, CBE, DSO, on October 15 surrounded by his family.

“General ‘Jacko’ served with distinction for over 40 years, finishing his career as chief of the general staff.

“He will be greatly missed, and long remembered.”

The announcement ended with the phrase “Utrinque Paratus”, the Latin motto of the Parachute Regiment, which translates to “ready for anything”.

The Parachute Regimental Association said he was a “great leader of men” who will be “missed by many”.

Jackson was seen as a tough and uncompromising soldier, with Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness reportedly among the nicknames his men gave him, referring to his cool manner and gravel voice.

He became head of the British Army just a month before the Iraq war, also known as the Second Gulf War, replacing General Sir Michael Walker.

During his time as the country’s top soldier, the general had to deal with claims of Iraqi prisoner abuse at the hands of UK troops and growing discontent about the role of coalition troops.

In 1999, while commanding 40,000 NATO KFOR troops in the Balkans, he refused an order from his American superior officer.

NATO supreme commander General Wesley Clark directed him to send forces into Kosovo to pre-empt a surprise Russian advance heading for the airport at Pristina.

But Jackson told him: “I’m not going to start the Third World War for you.”

Earlier in his career, he was present at two significant incidents in Northern Ireland.

He was a captain with the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment at the time of the Ballymurphy shootings in Northern Ireland in August 1971.

In 2019 he told an inquest into the deaths of 10 people in the incident that there had not been a cover-up.

He was also at Bloody Sunday in 1972, when British soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters in Derry, killing 14.

In March 2006, he created a storm by criticising kidnap victim Norman Kember, who, he said, had not thanked the SAS soldiers who rescued him and his Canadian colleagues from their captors in Iraq.

Sir Mike retired in August of that year having held the post for three-and-a-half years.

Born in March 1944, Sir Mike was educated at Stamford School and Sandhurst before being commissioned into the army as an officer in 1963.

He later earned a degree in Russian studies from Birmingham University while serving in the Intelligence Corps.