Children’s Hospices: South-east England
Josh Babarinde Excerpts(2 days, 20 hours ago)
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Alison Bennett (Mid Sussex) (LD)
I wholeheartedly welcome the Government’s announcement this morning, in anticipation of this afternoon’s debate, of £80 million of support for children’s hospices over three years. I thank the Minister for listening to the calls of the children’s hospice sector and the Liberal Democrats.
The three-year settlement will enable hospices to plan and deliver services over a longer period. Above all, it will ensure that seriously ill children and their families can continue to access hospice care. However, providers tell me that this level of funding does not solve the children’s hospice funding crisis, nor does it put children’s hospices on a genuinely long-term, sustainable financial footing. Bluntly, this funding will only slow the rate at which children’s hospice services are being cut.
Across the south-east—indeed, across the whole of England—children’s hospices support thousands of seriously ill babies, children and young people, and the families who love and care for them. One such organisation is Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. A parent recent said:
“Without the support of the team at Shooting Star I believe our family would be under enormous strain and feel unable to know where to turn.”
They are places of compassion, expert medical care and human dignity. They provide everything from end-of-life care to vital symptom management and psychological support, but our children’s hospices are in crisis. Unless urgent action is taken, many may disappear.
Since 2019, the number of children and young people needing end-of-life care has doubled. The demand for symptom management has surged by 108%. Hospices are having to provide more care and support than ever before, yet they are struggling to keep their doors open. At the same time, inflation and rising costs, particularly in recruiting and retaining highly skilled staff, has driven hospice expenditure up by an average of 15% in the past year alone.
The Government’s disastrous national insurance hike has only exacerbated the existing pressures. For example, Southern Hospice Group is a local charity made up of three Sussex hospices: Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice near Arundel, Martlets in Hove and St Barnabas House in Worthing. The national insurance rise has collectively cost them £500,000. Yes, the Government have increased funding in cash terms, but it is simply not enough. Local NHS funding from integrated care boards remains 18% lower than it was three years ago, even as hospices stretch to meet rising demand. Children’s hospices are now dipping into their reserves to stay open. In 2024-25, 59% of them ended the year in deficit. In 2025-26, that figure is expected to rise to a staggering 91%. This is clearly not sustainable.
Meanwhile, a postcode lottery in funding continues. Recent freedom of information requests conducted by the charity Together for Short Lives showed that some integrated care boards in London spent over £400 per child needing palliative care, while others spent less than £25. We see that too in the south-east: one ICB spent over £260 per child, while another spent just over £100. Only 32% of ICBs could even say how many children accessed hospice care in their region. This gap in data must be filled.
The announcement this morning suggested that funding being distributed via ICBs would tackle the postcode lottery issue, but the results of these FOI requests suggest that there is an awfully long way to go. How will the Minister ensure that ICBs commission children’s hospice services equitably? What guidance will they be given to ensure that these vast variations in support are eliminated?
If I can emphasise one thing, it is that people are the beating heart of the hospice movement. Highly qualified specialists, passionate volunteers and generous donors all make the seemingly impossible happen, but the work- force is in crisis. Incredibly, there are only 24 full-time equivalent paediatric palliative medicine specialists serving the entire UK, when we know the need is for at least 40 to 60. If we followed the guidelines of the Royal College of Nursing, we would have nearly 5,000 community children’s nurses; right now, we have under 1,000. The professionals who care for our sickest children are being stretched to breaking point.
I urge the Minister and the Government to build on today’s announcement by first fixing the broken commissioning system. We must instruct NHS England and the Department to model what each local NHS body should be spending on palliative care and to hold them accountable. We must commission services at regional and national levels, where appropriate, to create economies of scale, and we must use the new pan-ICB commissioning offices to ensure consistent and equitable access to care across England.
Secondly, we must tackle workforce shortages and invest an additional £2.4 million per year in GRID and SPIN training for paediatric palliative medicine. We must fund and implement safe staffing ratios for nurses and aim to employ the 4,960 community nurses that England truly needs.
Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. An amazing children’s hospice that serves constituents in my patch is Demelza, which has an amazing array of staff, volunteers and the rest, including Queen’s nurses such as Donna Mole. Will my hon. Friend congratulate Donna on being a recipient of that award? Will she also congratulate the fabulous Fia, one of the children served by the hospice, on a book that she has written, and will she encourage the Minister to order a copy?
Alison Bennett
I thank my hon. Friend for celebrating the work of Queen’s nurses and fabulous Fia for what she has done in writing a book—I am not sure that I could do that. It is truly impressive, and I am happy to encourage the Minister to buy the book; it sounds like I had better buy it too.
This is about real children like fabulous Fia. It is about real families and real suffering that could be eased. Children’s hospices provide £3.32 of care for every £1 invested by the state, which is extraordinary value, so they deserve more support. These children deserve dignity, comfort and skilled care, and their families deserve the support that only children’s hospices can offer.
Oral Answers to Questions
Josh Babarinde Excerpts(2 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Ashley Dalton
As the hon. Lady points out, for Teddy and Lily it is sadly too late for that treatment. That is why we are looking at screening. I would be delighted to meet with Teddy’s family once we have the outcome from the screening review.
Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)
The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)
The Department has published guidance that trusts are expected to follow to manage the provision of car-parking spaces for patients, hospital users and staff. Responsibility for hospital car parks lies with each individual trust, and provision must be managed alongside the existing policy, providing free parking for those in the greatest need.
Josh Babarinde
Parking at Eastbourne district general hospital, where I was born, is woefully inadequate. The car park is often full, so patients have to park way away up the Rodmill hill, and car park services are crumbling. More than that, lower-banded NHS staff now face a near doubling of car parking charges to cover the cost. Given that the Government have delayed investment in our new hospital and, therefore, in a new car park until the 2040s, what support will they provide in the meantime to upgrade our DGH car parking facilities without our NHS heroes being expected to foot the bill?
Karin Smyth
As the hon. Gentleman knows, the discussions about any advanced works arising from the new hospital programme are ongoing. I am very happy for the Department to continue to discuss with the trust how future investment can best meet the needs of the future.
Hospitals
Josh Babarinde Excerpts(5 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)
I start by declaring an interest that will prejudice me in this debate: I was born in Eastbourne district general hospital; I have said farewell to cherished folks there; and I have been brought back from the brink in the DGH myself. I express huge thanks to the incredible staff in A&E, the resuscitation area, the acute medical unit and on Jevington ward who treated me and got me back into action last year.
However, for years, our DGH services have been eroded, with core services like consultant-led maternity moved to the Conquest hospital in Hastings, an unacceptable 20 miles away. I will keep fighting for the return of consultant-led maternity services at the DGH, just as I fought alongside local campaigners to reopen our midwifery unit for births after months of closure. I fight standing on the shoulders of local campaigning giants for our NHS, such as Liz Walke. I have known her since I was seven, and I am proud to welcome her to the Gallery today alongside Rose Bunn.
Beyond services, our DGH buildings are crying out for help. Our DGH bosses have said:
“The age and standard of current hospital buildings presents challenges for the consistent delivery of safe, effective, responsive and efficient care.”
The trust’s backlog maintenance bill stands at £460 million. That is one of the largest in the country, and it is why we were included in the new hospital programme in the first place. Our town was therefore appalled that the Conservatives put our hospital to the back of the queue when they were in office, and Eastbournians are further outraged that this Government are keeping us there in wave 4. In fact, having been born in that hospital 31 years ago, I will be nearly 50 by the time it is set to be completed.
In the light of the mismatch between the size of our maintenance backlog and our place in the queue, my key ask of the Minister is whether the Government will review our wave 4 position in the programme as it stands. If they will not, what extra support will the Government provide to address the growing, nearly £500 million maintenance bill across our trust? Eastbourne needs answers and deserves action, and Eastbourne, together with campaigners such as Liz, will be listening very closely to her answers.
Hospice and Palliative Care
Josh Babarinde Excerpts(9 months ago)
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Dr Ben Spencer (Runnymede and Weybridge) (Con)
I thank the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) for speaking so eloquently in this important debate, and for securing it. I also thank the Backbench Business Committee.
Hospices are fantastic places, and all of us in this country are lucky to have them. People go to hospices not to die, but to live the last few days or weeks of their life. While I am pleased that the assisted dying Bill has led to a renewed interest in hospice and palliative care, I am sad that so much of the focus has been on death and the dying process, rather than on the broader support and care offered by hospices and palliative care providers—sometimes over many years—to people who have illnesses that may be life-limiting, and who require certain types of medical intervention to manage their symptoms. That is a very important part of the work that hospices and palliative care teams do, but as I say, much of the focus is often on the death process, rather than the treatment given to those with chronic conditions.
Speaking as a former consultant psychiatrist, it would be remiss of me not to mention the psychological support and mental health interventions by palliative care teams and hospices. They are experts in pain relief. Palliative care teams brought a lot of relief to me when, as a junior doctor, I tried to manage very difficult situations in patient care. They are experts in analgesic components. It is important to recognise the palliative care teams working in not only hospices but hospital settings and the community to alleviate people’s symptoms.
I pay tribute to the fantastic local hospices and care teams in the Runnymede and Weybridge constituency, at Woking & Sam Beare hospice, which I have visited and is a fantastic place, and at Princess Alice hospice, based in Esher. We also benefit from Shooting Stars, in the constituency of the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson). I hope to visit that one day. I thank all the teams who work in those hospices for delivering care and support, but also for keeping the hospices running, and for their vital fundraising.
Many people support hospices in lots of different ways, including through direct donations and organising fundraising events, and I am pleased to have been to fundraising events for Woking & Sam Beare hospice. In fact, a week or two ago, I went to the Chertsey panto, which has been running for 12 years. It supports the Woking & Sam Beare hospice. The performances, if one can call them that, have raised £60,000. The panto has to be seen to be believed; one will never forget the Chertsey panto after one has gone to it. The team who organise and run it are absolutely fantastic. It is a fantastic institution and raises a lot of good money for the hospice.
We also have charity shops. There is a great one in Weybridge that has been raising money for quite some time. I pay tribute to everybody for what they do, no matter how big or small, to support our hospices and our palliative care sector.
Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)
Will the hon. Member join me in promoting a fundraiser being held by St Wilfrid’s hospice in Eastbourne, called “I’m a CEO…Get Me Out of Here!”? It is trying to get lots of local chief executive officers and MPs to join the hospice staff in the Sussex jungle, to raise cash for the great work that the hospice does.
Dr Spencer
The hon. Member will have to explain further what is required from those who commit to fundraising in the Sussex jungle. He is right to pay tribute to those doing great work in support of our hospice sector. Its funding model is part public and part private, which gives hospices a great benefit. As they sit outside the NHS, they have greater flexibility in how they approach care provision. Woking & Sam Beare hospice is 31% funded by public sector money. It has 2,000 staff and, as I said, delivers fantastic care and support.
Much of this debate has been about the future of funding for our hospice sector. Although I am grateful to the Government for the money and support that they have put forward for hospices, sadly they have given with one hand and taken away with the other. The rise in employers’ national insurance contributions is very damaging, and hospices also need to manage increases to staffing budgets as a result of the Agenda for Change. Marie Curie has said that the national insurance component will cost it roughly £2.9 million per year.
Could the Minister say what impact assessment has been done on the national insurance contribution rises for hospices, and on the Agenda for Change? How many hospices in the UK are running a deficit, and how does he expect that to change over the next year and going forward, as a consequence of the decisions made in the Budget? If there is an opportunity to reverse those decisions, does he supporting doing so?
Oral Answers to Questions
Josh Babarinde Excerpts(9 months, 1 week ago)
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Wes Streeting
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the work she is doing to improve health and care services for her constituents. The Government are giving health and care providers the tools to do the job. Of course, change will take time, and it is therefore crucial that we all pull together locally and nationally. For the avoidance of doubt, the Government are on the side of the builders, not the blockers.
Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)
The NHS Confederation has said that for the Government to be able to drive down waiting lists,
“the pause to the delivery of the new hospitals programme must be as short as possible and NHS leaders need clarity about timelines.”
With that in mind, will the Secretary of State tell leaders at Eastbourne district general hospital, as well as our community in Eastbourne, precisely when the new hospital programme review will be completed so that we can get cracking with our upgrades?
Wes Streeting
I thank the hon. Member for that question. I agree with him about the need for clarity as well as consistency. We undertook the review into the new hospital programme because the previous Government’s timetable was a work of fiction and the money was not there. I hope to report to him and to the House shortly on that, with the undertaking that the timetable we publish and the funding provided by the Chancellor in the Budget and at the spending review will mean that we will provide not just clarity but consistency, which is important for NHS leaders, important for patients and important for the construction industry partners we need to work with.
Oral Answers to Questions
Josh Babarinde Excerpts(10 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)
Facilities such as leisure centres and swimming pools—like the Sovereign Centre in Eastbourne where I learned to swim—are critical in supporting people’s mental health locally. Will the Minister support me in putting pressure on the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to expand the criteria of the towns fund to allow us to be able to spend it to invest in our leisure centres and sports and fitness facilities for local people?
Andrew Gwynne
I am grateful to the hon. Member for his question. We are a mission-led Government and, of course, tackling health inequalities is a job not just for the Department of Health and Social Care, but for all Government Departments. I will be very happy to raise the role that Ministers can play in improving mental health and wellbeing in my bilaterals with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.