Campaigners last night renewed demands for an end to the scandal of funding for children’s hospices – as some warned they are preparing to pull the plug on crucial services.
In the starkest warning yet, the people looking after seriously ill babies and youngsters said end of life care, respite and symptom management assistance will all be slashed to the bone if the £25million Children’s Hospice Grant comes to an end.
Fears over funding have been growing since April when it was announced the current financial year would be the grant’s last – a scandal highlighted by the Daily Express
Last night it was understood NHS England had confirmed it will support the children’s hospice sector for another year at an “equivalent level” to 2023/24 – but no official announcement had been made. A spokesman said the NHS is “committed to a five-year funding programme” and added: “Discussion is ongoing with the Government and hospice sector to finalise arrangements beyond…2024/25.”
It was a glimmer of hope for the 9,000 UK youngsters living with life-limiting or threatening conditions. But charity Together For Short Lives, which is leading calls to save the grant, said it must rise in line with inflation.
Its chief executive, Andy Fletcher, who writes in the Daily Express today, said any reduction in the grant will have a “devastating impact on lifeline services”.
A new report reveals without the grant, two in five children’s hospices will cut end of life care. And four in
five will slash the respite or short breaks they provide. Other services, such as art therapy, are funded by charitable incomes.
But many hospices have already cut them in the face of rising costs.
Mr Fletcher said: “I call on the Government to commit to NHS England protecting and centrally distributing the grant.”
That call is backed by London-based US comedian and actor Rob Delaney, whose son Henry received care from Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice before he died of a brain tumour in 2018 aged two-and-a-half.
The Catastrophe star said: “There will always be children who live short lives. But, by supporting our children’s hospices through sustainable funding, we can make sure dying children and their families get the same joy that we and Henry got.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
