Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the settlement decision of NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board not to grant additional funding to hospices on (a) patient care and (b) the financial sustainability of those hospices.

No assessment has been made. The Government and NHS England recognises the importance of palliative and end of life care for patients and those important to them. 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. Any assessment would therefore be made at a local level.

With increasing costs and pressures and operational planning requirements from NHS England to reduce overspends, Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB has had to prioritise and focus funding on maintaining core services in the National Health Service.

As part of this review of spending, a decision has been made to not financially uplift the funding to voluntary sector contracts in Lancashire and South Cumbria, and this includes hospices. The ICB has not cut its funding to the hospices and recognises the essential work they do to support local communities. However, the ICB has not at this stage in the year been able to allocate any inflationary uplift to the contracts.

Discussions are ongoing and there are plans for the ICB to meet with the Lancashire and South Cumbria hospice leaders to discuss further.