Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of (a) commissioning funding of integrated care boards and (b) other funding provided to hospice services.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. ICBs are responsible for commissioning palliative and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance which outlines areas for consideration when commissioning.

Additionally, although not statutory, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidance on the service delivery of end of life care. There is an expectation that commissioners and service providers take the guidelines into account when making decisions about how to best meet the needs of their local communities.

Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing National Health Services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on demand in that ICB area but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.

NHS England has a legal duty to annually assess the performance of each ICB in respect of each financial year and to publish a summary of its findings. This assessment must assess how well the ICB has discharged its functions.

We are, at a national level, also supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. The Government has released the first £25 million tranche of the £100 million of capital funding, with Hospice UK kindly allocating and distributing the money to hospices throughout England. An additional £75 million will be allocated in the coming weeks for use in 2025/26.

Additionally, we are providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. NHS England has now communicated the details of the 2025/26 funding allocation and dissemination to individual hospices.

In February, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.