Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how she plans to distribute funding through the Children's Hospice Grant in the 2024-25 financial year.

NHS England currently supports palliative and end of life care for children and young people through the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. Last year, NHS England confirmed that it will be renewing the funding for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million of funding for children’s hospices using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as in 2022/23 and 2023/24. This prevalence-based approach ensures funding matches local need.

The distribution of the 2024/25 funding to children’s hospices will be via integrated care boards (ICBs), in line with the wider move to a devolved National Health Service, in which ICBs are best placed to meet the health and care needs of their local population.

The Department and NHS England hope to be able to provide the greater clarity that the sector is seeking on this important funding stream to children’s hospices, in the coming weeks.