Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to encourage local authorities to contribute more funding to palliative care organisations.

The Government set out its commitment to everyone at the end of life in the Government response to the independent Review of Choice in End of Life Care and pledged to support local leaders to prioritise and improve end of life care.

Levels of National Health Service funded hospice care provision are determined locally by clinical commissioning groups, and they are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population. Commissioners should identify any gaps in local provision and put in place service development plans to address this identified need. NHS England is developing a per-patient funding system for palliative care, which will support greater quality and choice in end of life care. The aim has been to ensure that palliative care in all settings, including hospices, is funded fairly and transparently.

The Government also promotes the National Palliative and End of Life Care Partnership’s Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care: a national framework for local action 2015-2010 which sets out six ‘ambitions’ for local delivery of end of life care. The Partnership encourages Health and Wellbeing Boards, chaired by local authority members, to apply the Ambitions Framework to their local area to ensure everyone receives high quality, compassionate and personalised care.