Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support hospices.

Most hospices are independent, charitable organisations that receive some statutory funding, mainly from clinical commissioning groups for providing local services. To support the palliative and end of life care sector, including hospices, NHS England and NHS Improvement have made funding available to seven palliative and end of life care strategic clinical networks to support the delivery of clinical care, with sustainability and commissioning as guiding principles.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have also funded Hospice UK to explore sustainable approaches to future care delivery. Their ‘Future Vision Programme - Discovery Phase’ report sets out a range of options for exploring future sustainability.