Funding for children's hospices

This debate pack contains background information on funding for children’s hospices, as well as some suggested further reading materials which Members may find useful in preparation for this debate.

Hospices provide care for people with incurable illness, from the point at which their illness is diagnosed as terminal, until the end of their life.

There are over 200 adult and 50 children’s hospices in the United Kingdom. It is estimated that those hospices support over 300,000 people each year, including people at the end of life, their families, carers, and bereaved relatives.

Most hospices were established from charitable and philanthropic donations and are primarily charity-funded and independently run. However, they receive around a third of their income from statutory funding from the NHS and central government.

Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) receive a general funding allocation from the government to deliver the services they are responsible for, including palliative and end of life care. Alongside funding through ICBs, some hospices receive funding from local authorities.

In 2022/23 and 2023/24, £1.5 billion of additional funding was provided at a national level to support ICBs with inflationary pressures. It was for ICBs to decide how best to distribute this funding within the system.

Grant funding was made available by the government to hospices during the covid-19 pandemic.

MPs from all parties and stakeholders have expressed concerns about both the level of funding and the funding model for hospices. There are also concerns about the rising costs of living, particularly in relation to energy bills and inflation, as well as staffing costs, and rising demand for hospice care. In addition, there are concerns about the future of the Children’s Hospice Grant and the flow of funding from ICBs to hospices.

Together for Short Lives, a children’s palliative care charity, estimated that there would be a total shortfall of just over £30 million across all children’s hospice organisations in the UK for 2024/25.

Further Reading

• All-Party Parliamentary Group Hospice and end of life care, Government funding for hospices, (PDF) January 2024
• Health and Social Care Committee, Assisted Dying/Assisted Suicide, Second report of session 2023-4
• NHSE, Service specifications for palliative and end of life care: Children and young people (CYP), 26 January 2023
• Together for Short Lives, Short Lives Can’t Wait: the state of children’s palliative care in 2024 (PDF) 19 June 2024
• Together for Short Lives, An overview of children’s palliative care in the UK in 2024
• House of Lords Library In Focus, Hospices: State funding, 21 October 2024
• POST, Palliative and end of Life Care, 27 July 2022