Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for charitable hospices.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. This government is 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.

Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding from the National Health Service. The amount of funding charitable hospices receive varies by integrated care board (ICB) area, and will, in part, be dependent on the local population need and a system-wide approach using a range of palliative and end of life care provision within their ICB footprint.

I recently met NHS England and discussions have begun on how to reduce inequalities and variation in access to, and the quality of, palliative and end of life care.  We will consider next steps on palliative and end of life care, including funding, in the coming months.

Additionally, we have committed to develop a 10-year plan to deliver a NHS fit for the future, by driving three shifts in the way health care is delivered. We will carefully be considering policies, including those that impact people with palliative and end of life care needs, with input from the public, patients, health staff and our stakeholders as we develop the plan.

More information about how members of the public, patients, healthcare staff and stakeholder organisations can input into the 10-Year Health Plan is available at the following link:

https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/