Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential implications for his polices of the change in the number of available hospice beds in England over the last 12 months.

No formal assessment has been made of the potential implications for the Department’s policies of the change in the number of available hospice beds in England over the last 12 months.

However, we do recognise the difficult and challenging financial situation that many hospices are facing due to a range of concurrent cost pressures and that, as a result, some hospices have had to reduce the services they offer and the number of inpatient beds.

We have been supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We can now confirm we are providing a further £25 million in capital funding for hospices to spend in 2025/26.

We also recently announced that we are providing approximately £80 million of revenue funding for children and young people’s hospices in England over the next three financial years, from 2026/27 to 2028/29, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients.

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. As part of the MSF, we will consider contracting and commissioning arrangements. We recognise that there is currently a mix of contracting models in the hospice sector. By supporting integrated care boards to commission more strategically, we can move away from grant and block contract models. In the long term, this will aid sustainability and help hospices’ ability to plan ahead.