Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the NHS England Children’s Hospice Grant by at least the rate of inflation each year, beyond 2023-24.

In 2019, NHS England committed to increase the Children’s Hospice Grant until financial year 2023/24, which is the final year of the agreement. Palliative and end of life care is commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs) in response to the needs of their local population. Following their establishment, ICBs are now best placed to determine future provision of palliative and end of life care from within their system allocation of funding, and the statutory guidance published by NHS England formalises the requirement for them to do this.