Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding support her Department is providing to Integrated Care Boards on the operation of (a) hospices, (b) palliative care and (c) end-of-life services.

The majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by core National Health Service staff and services. However, we also recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, play in providing support to people at end of life, and their families. Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services.

The amount of funding hospices receive is dependent on many factors, including what other statutory services are available within the integrated care board (ICB) footprint. Charitable hospices provide a range of services which go beyond that which statutory services are legally required to provide, and consequently, the funding arrangements reflect this.

However, since 2020, NHS England has provided hospices with over £350 million to secure and increase NHS capacity, and to support hospital discharge, as part of the COVID-19 response. In addition, since 2021/22, nearly £63 million has been provided to children’s hospices as part of the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. Furthermore, additional investment in children and young people’s palliative and end of life care, including hospices, has also been made through the NHS Long Term Plan’s commitment to match-fund clinical commissioning groups, and subsequently ICBs, totalling over £23 million.

As set out in the Health and Care Act 2022, ICBs are responsible for determining the level of NHS-funded palliative and end of life care locally, including hospice care, and are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population.