Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the move of care from hospital to community set out in the 10 Year Health Plan will be funded for hospices providing community and hospice-at-home care.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out the Government’s ambition to shift more care from hospitals into the community. Hospices have an important role to play in this shift, including through community and hospice-at-home services.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. Whilst the majority of palliative care and end-of-life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and their loved ones.

We are developing a modern service framework (MSF) for Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care in England, which will support more strategic commissioning and sustainable contracting of hospice services by ICBs. An interim update has now been published in the form of a Written Ministerial Statement, at the following link:

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-06-04/hcws88

Further metrics and associated targets will build on the 2029 ambitions set out in the Neighbourhood Health Framework, which includes increasing the number of people identified as approaching the end of life by 10% and reducing non-elective admissions and hospital bed days by 10% for that cohort.

The MSF will not be accompanied by new national funding, as its primary purpose is to set the strategic direction for improving palliative care and end-of-life care, including reducing variation in access, quality, and outcomes by using existing resources across the systems.

The Government has supported the hospice sector with a £125 million capital funding boost for adult and children and young’s hospices in England. We are also providing approximately £80 million of revenue funding for children and young people’s hospices over three financial years, from 2026/27 to 2028/29, giving them the stability they need to plan ahead.