Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they expect integrated care boards in England to be able to identify how much money they spend on children’s hospices; and, if not, what action they will take.

The Government does not hold information regarding the amount of money each integrated care board (ICB) spends on children’s hospices. There is currently no plan to take any action to ensure that ICBs can identify how much money they spend specifically on children’s hospices.

At a national level, NHS England supports palliative and end of life care for children and young people through the Children and Young People’s hospice grant. The grant provided approximately £17 million in 2021/22, £21 million in 2022/23 and £25 million in 2023/24 directly to children and young people’s hospices. NHS England has confirmed that it will be renewing the grant for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million grant funding for children’s hospices using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as in 2022/23 and 2023/24. NHS England is reprioritising budgets for 2024/25, in light of the revised assessment of financial position and, whilst it is holding funding aside for the children and young people’s hospice sector, it cannot confirm further details, including the distribution mechanism, until 2024/25 financial planning is concluded.

Additionally, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan commitment, NHSE has provided approximately £8.5 million match-funding to participating ICBs and formerly clinical commissioning groups between 2022/23 and 2023/24 that committed to invest in children and young people’s palliative and end of life care, including hospices, giving a total investment of £17 million for that period.