Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the delivery of inflation-related uplifts to statutory contracts with the independent hospice sector.

No assessment has been made. Palliative and end of life care, including hospice care, is commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs) in response to the needs of their local population. To support ICBs in this, NHS England has published and shared a range of resources including statutory guidance for ICBs, service specifications for adults and children and young people, and further commissioning-specific resources via the FutureNHS Collaborative Platform. Guidance for ICBs is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/palliative-and-end-of-life-care-statutory-guidance-for-integrated-care-boards-icbs/

In addition, NHS England funded the establishment of seven palliative and end of life care Strategic Clinical Networks to work with integrated care systems to progress and implement sustainable commissioning models for equitable, high-quality services.

NHS England implemented an Accelerated Development Programme during 2022/23 to build a community of practice and develop commissioning mentors, and funded Hospice UK to explore sustainable approaches to future care delivery.

At a national level, NHS England has released £1.5 billion additional funding to ICBs to provide support for inflation, with ICBs deciding how best to distribute this funding within their systems. Additionally, NHS England has invested £25 million in the Children and Young People hospice grant in the financial year 2023/24.