Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help financially support children's hospices.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the commissioning of end of life and palliative care services, including for children and young people, to meet the reasonable needs of their local populations. As part of the Health and Care Act 2022, palliative care services were specifically added to the list of services that an ICB must commission. Hospices are largely independent charitable organisations which may receive some funding from ICBs for delivering services in the National Health Service.

In June 2023, NHS England confirmed that it would be renewing the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million grant funding for children’s hospices in England. NHS England will communicate further details regarding the process for the grant allocations later this year.