Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of her Department's funding of (a) hospices and (b) St Leonard's Hospice in York.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for determining the level of National Health Service funded palliative and end of life care, including hospice care, locally, and are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population. As part of the Health and Care Act 2022, the Government added palliative care services to the list of services an ICB must commission, which will ensure a more consistent national approach and support commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care.

The majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by NHS staff and services. However, we also recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, play in providing support to people at end of life and their families. Most hospices, including St Leonard’s Hospice, are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding hospices receive is dependent on many factors, including what other statutory services are available within the ICB footprint. Charitable hospices provide a range of services which go beyond that which statutory services are legally required to provide and, consequently, the funding arrangements reflect this.