Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions (a) he and (b) his officials have had with the hospice and end of life care sector on future funding for the sector.

I have met with NHS England to discuss how to reduce inequalities and variation in access to, and the quality of, palliative and end of life care. I also recently met Together for Short Lives and one of the chairs of the Children Who Need Palliative Care All Party Parliamentary Group to discuss children’s palliative and end of life care, and funding was discussed at length at this meeting.

Department officials meet regularly with palliative and end of life care stakeholders, including Hospice UK, Sue Ryder, Marie Curie, and Together for Short Lives. We, alongside key partners NHS England, will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face. 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 National Health Service 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 to input into the 10-Year Health Plan is available at the following link:

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

We have been actively encouraging our stakeholders to engage with that process to allow us to fully understand what improvements could be made.