Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding to support children and young people's hospices will be allocated for 2025–26 compared to (1) 2022–23, and (2) 2023–24.

In 2022/23, NHS England provided £21 million of funding for children and young people’s hospices in England through the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. In addition, in 2023/24, NHS England provided £25 million of funding through the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. Finally, in 2025/26, £26 million of revenue funding is being provided to support children and young people’s hospices. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant.

Additionally, we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England, spanning 2024/25 and 2025/26, to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. The Government has released the first £25 million tranche of that funding for 2024/25, with Hospice UK kindly allocating and distributing the money to hospices throughout England. Of this first tranche of funding, children and young people’s hospices are receiving £3,065,705. This does not include hospices which provide both adult and children’s services. The second tranche of the £75 million of funding for 2025/26 will be available from April 2025, and hospices will be informed of their allocations in due course.

It is important to note that the funding outlined above does not represent the totality of the National Health Service funding provided to children and young people’s hospices, most of which are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding from their local integrated care board (ICB) for providing services within the NHS. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on the demand in that ICB area, but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.

ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of children and young people’s palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and a service specification for children and young people.

The Department does not hold specific data regarding the total amount of funding children and young people’s hospices receive from ICBs each year. Individual ICBs oversee and maintain records of these transactions.