Landmark Budget must be platform to protect children’s palliative care

UK children’s palliative care charity Together for Short Lives has called on the government to urgently fix funding for lifeline children’s palliative care services following today’s Budget and Spending Review (30 October).

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced a series of measures which have potential to improve the lives of seriously ill children and their families. including:

• a £1 billion uplift for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services, equivalent to 6% real-terms increase
• £600 million of new social care funding for local authorities and £250 million in 2025/26 to test measures to support children who need social care – followed by fundamental children’s social care reform promised for beyond 2025/26
• an additional £22.6 billion of NHS resource spending in 2025/26 – an average 4% real terms increase over two years compared to 2023/24, with a commitment to reform patient care pathways

The Chancellor also announced an increase in the rate of employer National Insurance contributions from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025, which could increase the costs that voluntary sector children’s palliative care providers, including children’s hospices, incur in employing staff.

Nick Carroll, Interim Chief Executive of Together for Short Lives, said: “In her long-anticipated Budget, the Chancellor has announced welcome spending increases for the NHS, special educational needs and disability (SEND) services and for local authority-funded children’s social care. These important financial settlements must now be the springboard for urgent action to fairly and sustainably fund palliative care for seriously children and their families. They do not have time to wait.”

“NHS England should begin by committing to maintaining £25 million for children’s hospices in England as ringfenced, centrally-distributed funding beyond 2024/25, and ensure this funding increases by at least the rate of inflation. It should also fill the £295 million NHS funding gap in 2024/25 which is preventing seriously ill children and families from accessing the children’s palliative care they need in hospitals, at home and in children’s hospices, provided by the NHS and voluntary sector.”

“The government must also fund the additional costs that children’s palliative care charities will incur due to the rise in employer National Insurance contributions. They are already spending more to recruit and retain people to provide lifeline care and support to the growing and more complex population of seriously ill children across the UK. Ministers will not realise the full potential of the voluntary sector to help deliver meaningful change for these children and families if they simply load even greater costs onto these vital organisations.”

“If the government fails to act now, more families will feel abandoned and overwhelmed – and children’s palliative care providers will have to cut back crucial support like short breaks for respite, symptom management and end of life care. More families will be forced to use costly, unplanned and unnecessary emergency care as they reach crisis point.”