Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to support hospices in Eastbourne.

We are 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 funding will help hospices to provide the best end of life care to patients and their families, in a supportive and dignified physical environment.

The first £25 million tranche of that funding, which Hospice UK kindly allocated and distributed to hospices throughout England, has been fully spent by hospices on capital projects. From this first tranche of funding, St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Eastbourne received £179,191. Demelza Hospice Care for Children, which is the closest children’s hospice provider to Eastbourne, received £242,135. The second tranche of funding, consisting of £75 million, will be allocated in the coming weeks for use in 2025/26.

In addition, we are also 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. Demelza Hospice Care for Children will receive an allocation of £1,750,000 for 2025/26.