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01  Voice · Academic · Unpaid carers

Professor Irene Higginson OBE, portrait

Photo: kcl.ac.uk

Academic

Professor Irene Higginson OBE

Professor of Palliative Care & Policy; Director of the Better Health & Care Hub; Co-Director, King's Population Health Institute, King's College London (Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care; Cicely Saunders Institute)

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3

Quoted in the press, across 3 topics since 8 Nov 2025

LONDON
OfficeKing's College London (Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care; Cicely Saunders Institute), London, WC2R 2LSKing's College London (Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care; Cicely Saunders Institute) is based in Cities of London and Westminster: the organisation’s base, not a personal address.

02  Quoted on · 2 of 29 topics

Open the topic

Professor Irene Higginson OBE: key facts

Kind of voice
Academic
Role
Professor of Palliative Care & Policy; Director of the Better Health & Care Hub; Co-Director, King's Population Health Institute
Organisation
King's College London (Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care; Cicely Saunders Institute)
Organisation based in
Cities of London and Westminster
Quoted on
Unpaid carers, Maternity & neonatal
Press coverage
Quoted in the press
Most recently quoted
28 Sept 2026
First quoted
8 Nov 2025

03  Profile

Who Professor Irene Higginson OBE is

Professor Irene Higginson OBE is Professor of Palliative Care & Policy at King's College London and Director of its Better Health & Care Hub. She is Founding Professor of the Cicely Saunders Institute and an Honorary Consultant in Palliative Medicine.

She is also Co-Director of the King's Population Health Institute, Scientific Director of the charity Cicely Saunders International, and Funding Committee Chair for the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research Programme. She is dual-trained in palliative medicine and public health medicine. Her research has pioneered ways to measure outcomes and quality of life and to evaluate palliative care, particularly new services and interventions.

She has argued that people without proper access to palliative care deserve as much attention as the assisted dying debate has received. She was previously Executive Dean of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care.

Notable achievements

  1. 01

    Elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2013 Source ↗

  2. 02

    Director of the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, which opened in 2010 Source ↗

  3. 03

    Named a Highly Cited Researcher (top 1% worldwide) in the 2019 Web of Science Group list Source ↗

  4. 04

    Appointed Executive Dean of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care from 1 January 2021 Source ↗

  5. 05

    Appointed Funding Committee Chair of the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research Programme from 1 September 2024 Source ↗

04  The signal · where Professor Irene Higginson OBE sits on unpaid carers

Quoted

Quoted in the press on unpaid carers.

Placed by press coverage on this topic only, not across all topics.

  1. Helen Walker portraitHelen WalkerSector leaderChief Executive, Carers UKLeading
  2. Emily Holzhausen portraitEmily HolzhausenSector leaderDirector of Policy and Public Affairs, Carers UKLeading
  3. Kirsty McHugh portraitKirsty McHughSector leaderChief Executive Officer, Carers TrustLeading
  4. Allison CannonClinicianChief nursing officer, NHS Surrey and Sussex
  5. Claire LamzaClinicianexecutive director of nursing at Mental Welfare Commission
  6. Professor Irene Higginson OBE portraitProfessor Irene Higginson OBEAcademicProfessor of Palliative Care & Policy; Director of the Better Health & Care Hub; Co-Director, King's Population Health Institute, King's College London (Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care; Cicely Saunders Institute)
  7. Paul RingerSector leaderchief executive officer at Age UK Oxfordshire
  8. Andy WeirSector leaderHealth's managing director

Showing the leading voices and those placed around Professor Irene Higginson OBE · See every voice on the topic →

05  On the record · press

What Professor Irene Higginson OBE has said

By outlet · bar length shows relative volume
  • kcl.ac.uk
  • bigissue.com

Where Professor Irene Higginson OBE has been quoted

  1. Public hugely underestimate likelihood of becoming unpaid carers – yet believe system would collapse without them | King's College Londonkcl.ac.uk · 28 Sept 2026
  2. Brits are more likely to become an unpaid carer than they thinkbigissue.com · 28 Sept 2026
  3. Into the Archive - Inequalities in Access to Maternity Care Londonkcl.ac.uk · 8 Nov 2025
How we found the articles that name Professor Irene Higginson OBE: we searched news for these terms, by topic. Terms for 2 topics

Unpaid carers

  • unpaid carers
  • carer's allowance
  • carers allowance
  • carer's leave
  • carer's credit
  • Carers UK
  • Carers Trust
  • young carers

Also searched with “unpaid carers” in each of 8 national papers, and in the Guardian by editor tag, and in trade press by category. Every term for Unpaid carers

Maternity & neonatal

  • maternity
  • maternity services
  • maternity care
  • neonatal
  • stillbirth
  • maternal mortality
  • midwifery
  • midwife

Also searched with “maternity” in each of 8 national papers, and in the Guardian by editor tag, and in trade press by category. Every term for Maternity & neonatal

Verbatim

“Most of us will provide unpaid care at some point in our lives. Yet this survey shows that we substantially underestimate how likely that is, even though nearly three-quarters of people recognise that our health and care system could not cope without unpaid carers – a view shared across political divides.”
Professor, OBE; Co-Director of the King's Better Health & Care Hub, King's College London · kcl.ac.uk · 28 Sept 2026 · Read the article
“Most of us will provide unpaid care at some point in our lives. Yet this survey shows that we substantially underestimate how likely that is.”
co-director of the King's Better Health & Care Hub · Unpaid carers · bigissue.com · 28 Sept 2026 · Read the article
“Their research has the potential to influence access to safe maternity care and to inform the forthcoming national maternity investigation.”
Professor of Palliative Care & Policy, Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care and Co-Director, King's Population Health Institute · Maternity & neonatal · kcl.ac.uk · 8 Nov 2025 · Read the article

Related media coverage

Recent UK press coverage of their topics, not necessarily citing them directly.

06  Sources

References for this biography

  1. Irene J Higginson – King's College London staff profile. Current titles (Professor of Palliative Care & Policy, Director of Better Health & Care Hub, Founding Professor of Cicely Saunders Institute), Scientific Director of Cicely Saunders International, research focus, dual training in palliative and public health medicine
  2. King's hosts international Executive Course on Value Based Healthcare. Describes her as Co-Director of the King's Population Health Institute and as introducing the Better Health & Care Hub
  3. Irene Higginson – King's College London Research Portal. Her current roles, including NIHR HSDR Funding Committee Chair and NIHR Senior Investigator (Emeritus)
  4. Professor Irene Higginson – Academy of Medical Sciences. Fellowship elected 2013; research on outcome measures, place of care and palliative care in non-cancer conditions
  5. Irene Higginson: progress towards a better ending – The Lancet. Career background (Nottingham medical school, joined KCL in 1996), her directorship of the Cicely Saunders Institute (opened 2010), and her stated view on access to palliative care versus the assisted dying debate
  6. Professor Irene Higginson appointed as Executive Dean. Appointment as Executive Dean from January 2021 and earlier roles at King's
  7. Professor Irene Higginson to step down as NMPC Executive Dean to take up NIHR role. Stepped down as Executive Dean to chair the NIHR HSDR Funding Committee from 1 September 2024; continues as Professor of Palliative Care & Policy
  8. Professor Irene Higginson named as highly cited researcher, top 1% in the world. 2019 Highly Cited Researcher recognition and research interests
  9. Irene J Higginson on X (@ij_higginson). X account whose profile reads Professor Palliative Care and Policy, Cicely Saunders Institute
  10. Contact King's College London. Head office address and postcode (Strand, London WC2R 2LS) and the main switchboard number

07  Contact & links

X
twitter.com/ij_higginsonpublished here ↗
Staff page
kcl.ac.uk/people/irene-j-higginson
Press office phone
+44 (0)20 7836 5454published here ↗

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.

Professors, researchers and think-tank analysts quoted on the strength of their research rather than a clinical role. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. This profile was last updated on 13 Nov 2026. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.