Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the role of voluntary and community sector organisations in improving (a) wellbeing and (b) quality of life for (i) children and (ii) families in hospice settings in Surrey Heath constituency.

The Department has not had any specific discussions with the providers of sensory and recreational facilities in children’s hospices in Surrey or the Surrey Health constituency. Nor has any formal assessment been made of the role of voluntary and community sector organisations in improving wellbeing and quality of life for children and families in hospice settings in the Surrey Heath constituency.

We recognise the vital role that children’s hospices, including those in Surrey, play in providing holistic, personalised care for children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families. Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing National Health Services. This approach safeguards their independence and autonomy, enabling them to offer services beyond the statutory provision.

As charitable organisations, children’s hospices are able to go above and beyond what the NHS can provide as part of its statutory provision. As such, many children’s hospices provide sensory and recreational facilities, as part of the holistic, wrap-around care that make hospices so valued by the children they support and their families. For example, Shooting Star Children’s Hospice, which provides support to children across Surrey, has a soft-play room, a sensory room, art therapy, music therapy, and other complementary therapies.

The Government made the biggest investment in hospices in a generation, with £100 million to improve hospice facilities, and has also committed £80 million of revenue funding for children’s and young people’s hospices over three years.