A report published on the 16 June 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 rapidly 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 [1]. 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 that 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.”
The situation is being made worse by ongoing regional variation in local NHS funding, with NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board (ICB) spending an average of £407 on children’s hospice care per child or young person with serious illness in 2025/26, while NHS Northamptonshire ICB spent just £32.
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 respondents indicating that they ended 2025/26 with an operating deficit in their budget [2]. 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:
- 33% have reduced provision of short breaks for respite.
- 11% have cut back on end of life care services
- 15% have reduced their hospice-at-home service.
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.
Noah’s family know first-hand the incredible difference that access to a children’s hospice can make. Noah was born a healthy twin with his sister Ella. But when at three years of age doctors discovered a large inoperable brain stem tumour, Little Havens Children’s Hospice in Essex was there for the whole family.
Mum Kat, said: “Noah was really well in himself at first, and it was difficult to believe the prognosis that we were facing. We made incredible memories at Little Havens. Ella adored the ball pit and Noah loved the unlimited supply of dinosaurs, trains and animals. We enjoyed the hydrotherapy pool, beautiful gardens, sensory room, music sessions and craft area.
“Then when Noah became more poorly, and his pain or symptoms became difficult for us to manage at home, the hospice team were always there to provide symptom management and a calm and reassuring environment. Noah’s medical care was their responsibility, and it meant we could enjoy time together as a family with the pressure off.”
Six months after his first radiotherapy, the tumour began growing again. Noah died on 3rd May 2020, aged 4, surrounded by his family.
Throughout this time the family received support from a specialist counsellor, including Ella, Noah’s sister, who was only three at the time of diagnosis. That support has continued for as long as the family need.
“Having counselling from Jane to help us support Ella has made a huge difference. Without that I don’t think I would have coped the way I have.”
Dad Nick, added: “What makes it sad coming back, and emotional as you drive down the driveway, is remembering how much fun Noah and Ella had together at Little Havens, all those happy memories come flooding back. If people didn’t donate before, then we wouldn’t have had all those precious memories, and you can’t put a price on that?”
During a reception hosted in Westminster on 16 June by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Children Who Need Palliative Care, Together for Short Lives briefed MPs on the report findings, setting out a series of actions it wants ministers and officials to take immediately. [3]
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.”
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Methodology
To understand more about the current state of children’s hospice funding across the UK, in April 2026, we asked all children’s hospice organisations how they were funded in 2025/26 and the impact this has had on the services they have been able to provide to seriously ill children and their families. We also asked how they expected this to change in 2026/27.
In total, 27 children’s hospice organisations across the UK responded to our survey. Among the hospices that responded, we received responses from children’s hospices in the devolved nations of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
In England, 24 children’s hospice organisations responded to the survey and provided information about their income and expenditure.
As funding is also derived from integrated care boards (ICBs), in April 2026, we also issued a series of freedom of information (FOI) requests to all 36 ICBs. In total, 32 out of 36 ICBs in England responded to our FOI request. When responding, ICBs were asked to exclude any funding disseminated on behalf of NHS England (NHSE) to ensure a clear picture of locally commissioned support.
For 2025/26 spending, figures were analysed on the basis of there being 42 ICBs, reflecting the structure in place during that financial year. Of these 42, we received usable spending data from 32 ICBs. However, data relating to the former Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB was omitted due to only partial information being provided. Where ICBs reported on a financial year running from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, these responses were included in the analysis.
Overall, these FOIs have helped us to further establish how each ICB funded children’s hospices in 2025/26 – and how ICBs are planning to fund them in 2026/27.
End notes
[1] Between 2024/25 and 2025/26, average charitable expenditure across children’s hospices UK-wide has increased by 18%, rising from £5,314,246 in 2024/25 to £6,270,160 in 2025/26. For children’s hospices in England only, charitable expenditure has increased by 16.3%.
[2] Based on a total of 15 out of 25 children’s hospices across the UK (60%), that provided data showing an annual expenditure on children’s palliative care above their total income for the year. Note: An operating deficit is the gap between how much money the children’s hospice has spent to run its services and how much income it has received to cover those costs.
[3] Together for Short Lives is calling for the following:
a) England
- The government should implement Hospice UK’s four-point plan for fair hospice funding. Specifically, we call on the UK Government to ensure that 100% of the costs incurred by children’s hospices in providing clinical care, that would otherwise fall to the NHS, is covered by the state.
- The government should commit to multi-year long-term NHS funding for the health elements of children’s hospice and palliative care in England that fills the £310 million gap that we have identified to sustain lifeline services provided in hospitals, the community and in children’s hospices by the end of 2027/28.
- This funding should be scaled-up alongside investment to increase the number of professionals with the skills and experience to meet the needs of seriously ill children.
- DHSC should conduct its own modelling to determine how much local NHS bodies should spend on the health elements of children’s hospice and palliative care—and then hold them to account for the extent to which they spend money for this purpose.
- The government should establish clear accountability mechanisms to underpin the MSF and ensure its implementation, including actions that will be taken if ICBs do not meet the required expectations.
b) Northern Ireland
- The Northern Ireland Executive should commit to providing additional and sustainable statutory funding to Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice for the long term. This funding should be sufficient to cover 50% of the costs incurred in providing lifeline care and support to children and their families.
- The Executive should ensure that any additional and recurrent statutory funding that is awarded is tied to and increases in line with the rising costs caused by inflationary pressures for both salary and non-salary expenditure.
c) Scotland
- The Scottish Government should re-commit to providing additional and sustainable statutory funding to Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) for the long term.
- This funding should be sufficient to cover 50% of agreed costs in providing lifeline care to children and their families, alongside additional costs associated with rising employer National Insurance Contributions and achieving pay parity with the NHS.
- The Scottish Government should ensure that any additional and recurrent statutory funding that is awarded is tied to and increases in line with the rising costs caused by inflationary pressures.
- The Scottish Government should provide sustainable funding so that its new national strategy for palliative and end of life care can be implemented in full.
d) Wales
- We join Tŷ Hafan and Tŷ Gobaith in calling for the new Welsh Government to commit to sustainable, fair funding for both children’s hospices. That means committing to provide statutory funding that covers 30% of the hospices’ care costs by 2030.
- The Welsh Government should ensure that any additional and recurrent statutory funding that is awarded is tied to and increases in line with the rising costs caused by inflationary pressures.
About Together for Short Lives
Together for Short Lives is the leading UK-wide charity for children living with serious illness, their families and the services that provide them with palliative care.
Every child deserves many moments of happiness together with their loved ones. But for many families who need palliative care, the system is falling short, leaving parents and siblings feeling isolated and alone, and children are missing out on life-changing support.
That’s why we’re here – to make sure they can access high quality children’s palliative care, when and where they need it. Step, by step, hand in hand, day by day, so that every family can live as well as possible as they navigate their child’s life, death, bereavement and beyond.
Together we support families to live their lives, through the ups and downs, offering practical, emotional and financial help. We listen, we support and, when they’re ready, we connect them to the right services and our incredible community – people who really get what they’re going through.
Together we unite our sector by prioritising and sharing crucial research, defining the children who could benefit from palliative care and how they can be supported now. We lead on guidance, service models and standards and help professionals to meet, learn and share. We raise vital funds for children’s hospice and palliative care services.
Together we campaign to make sure that children with serious illness and their families get the care and support they need. We hear what families and services tell us, rally the community and give people a voice. And where the system falls short, we demand change.
Supporting, uniting, campaigning, together.
We are Together for Short Lives – togetherforshortlives.org.uk
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