I have had a number of constituents contact me about hospice funding.
I was proud to stand on a manifesto in the recent election with the specific pledge to continue delivering high-quality palliative care services and supporting children’s and adults’ hospices.
I am encouraged by the progress that was made in the last Parliament. It sought to improve access to palliative care services, with Integrated Care Boards having a duty to determine the level of NHS-funded hospice care required locally and ensuring the provision of palliative and end-of-life care services to meet that local need. To hold Integrated Care Boards accountable, NHS England is including palliative and end of life care in the list of topics for regular performance discussions between national and regional leads.
During 2023/24, NHS England invested £25 million in palliative and end of life care services and allocated a further £25 million grant funding for children’s hospices in England for the 2024/25 period, using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as previous years. This ensured funding matched local need. However, I fully accept that there is more to be done. I will give close consideration to any future initiatives, as it is very important that we get this right and I would be happy to hear more from Hospice UK about this.
