As the number of children living longer with highly complex medical needs grows, children’s hospices are delivering more care than ever before.
This means that their costs have risen by 18% in a single year, forcing them to rely on charitable income and reserves to maintain essential services. This is one of the many findings in our new UK-wide report, Vital care, fragile funding: why children’s hospices can’t keep filling the gap, published during Children’s Hospice Week 2026.
The report warns that some children’s hospices are already cutting the care they provide, including end of life care, symptom management and short breaks, because funding from local NHS bodies and councils is failing to keep pace with rapidly rising costs.
Rising costs, falling funding
Between 2024/25 and 2025/26, children’s hospices spent on average 18% more on their services. Much of this is clinical care that would otherwise fall to the NHS to provide as children are living longer with more complex needs, requiring specialist nursing, symptom management and multidisciplinary support.
This rising cost reflects a sharp growth in demand. In 2025/26, the number of children receiving symptom management support rose by 40%, those supported at the end of life by 4%, and those receiving hospice-at-home support by 11%.
At the same time, funding from the NHS and local councils has failed to keep up. In England, funding from integrated care boards (ICBs) rose by just 4% in 2025/26, and this funding is distributed patchily and unfairly. Our Freedom of Information requests found that NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB spent an average of £407 per child or young person with serious illness, while NHS Northamptonshire ICB spent just £32.
As a result, three fifths (60%) of children’s hospices ended 2025/26 with an operating deficit. For every £1 spent by the NHS and local councils, children’s hospices in England now provide nearly £4 in care and support, with the majority funded through charitable income.
Nick Carroll, Together for Short Lives Chief Executive, 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.”
The impact on services
As a result of ongoing cost pressures, children’s hospices are being forced to reduce the care they offer. Across the UK:
For families navigating a child’s life, death and bereavement, these reductions can mean fewer opportunities for respite, less support at home, and fewer opportunities to spend precious time together during their child’s life.
Noah’s story
Noah’s family know first-hand the difference that access to a children’s hospice can make. Noah was born a healthy twin alongside his sister Ella. But at three-years-old, doctors discovered a large inoperable brain stem tumour. The family were then introduced to Little Havens Children’s Hospice in Essex, who have been there for the whole family.
Kat, Noah’s mum, 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 3 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.
Our call to government
During Children’s Hospice Week 2026, on Tuesday 16 June, Together for Short Lives will brief MPs at a Westminster reception hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children Who Need Palliative Care, setting out the actions it wants ministers and officials to take immediately.
Nick Carroll, Together for Short Lives Chief Executive, 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.”
With children’s hospices across the UK facing unsustainable NHS and local council funding, the charity is also calling for urgent action from ministers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.