New report calls on government to fill £310 million children’s palliative care funding gap
A new report by Together for Short Lives, the leading UK-wide charity for children living with serious illness, has found that some children’s hospices are cutting vital services amid rising operating costs which are not being sustainably funded by local NHS bodies and councils. The charity says that the UK Government’s new palliative care goal for England will drift even further away unless ministers act urgently to fund children’s hospices fairly.
The new UK-wide report to mark Children’s Hospice Week (15-21 June), ‘Vital care, fragile funding: why children’s hospices can’t keep filling the gap’, shows how children’s hospices spent, on average, 18% more on their services in 2025/26 compared to the previous year. This includes money spent on clinical care that it would otherwise fall to the NHS to provide.
A key driver is the increasing number of children living longer with highly complex medical needs, often requiring novel technologies, specialist nursing, symptom management and multidisciplinary support to manage care safely.
Yet despite the vital care that children’s hospices provide, funding from local bodies is failing to keep pace. For example, in England funding from integrated care boards rose by just 4% in 2025/26 compared to the previous year.
Nick Carroll, Chief Executive of Together for Short Lives, said: “These critical services, and the families they care for, continue to be let down by a system which varies wildly according to where they live and, too often, overlooks them. As demand for children’s hospice care grows and becomes more complex, unfair and unsustainable funding is pulling us further away from the government’s goal: that every person who needs palliative or end of life care in England will have equitable access to high quality support, shaped by what matters to them, their families and carers.”
With a postcode lottery persisting across the UK, many children’s hospices are being forced to rely on charitable income and financial reserves to maintain essential services, with data provided by 60% of hospices indicating that they ended 2025/26 with an operating deficit in their budget. This means that for every £1 spent by the NHS and local councils, children’s hospices in England are now providing nearly £4 in care and support, with the majority funded through charitable income.
As a direct result many children’s hospices are now being forced to cut services, a trend Together for Short Lives describes as extremely worrying:
For families navigating a child’s life, death and bereavement, these service reductions can ultimately mean fewer opportunities for respite, less support at home, and fewer opportunities to spend precious time together and create lasting memories during their child's life.
During a reception hosted in Westminster this afternoon (16 June) by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Children Who Need Palliative Care, Together for Short Lives will brief MPs on the report findings, setting out a series of actions it wants ministers and officials to take immediately.
Nick Carroll said: "We cannot accept the current situation. In England, I support the £80 million allocated to children’s hospices until 2029, the £125 million in capital expenditure funding for both adult and children’s hospices and the government’s work to develop a new all-age palliative care modern service framework to address these challenges.
“But I urge ministers to act now to fairly and sustainably support children’s hospices by fully-funding children’s hospice’s clinical care year on year, filling the £310 million children’s palliative care funding gap and better supporting NHS bodies. We cannot wait for a new government framework. If they do not, more demands will be loaded onto overstretched hospital services and too many families will be isolated and alone.”