As the number of seriously ill children grows and children’s hospices deliver more care and support than ever before, their costs have soared by a third (34%) in three years, forcing hospices to rely on public generosity to maintain essential services. This is one of many stark facts we have uncovered in our latest report, Overstretched and underfunded: the state of children’s hospice funding in 2025, published today (Friday 27 June 2025).
Our report, released just after our annual awareness week Children’s Hospice Week, warns that seriously ill children will die having been denied access to vital end of life care, symptom management and emotional and psychological support for their families if ministers fail to protect, maintain and increase crucial funding for the UK’s 53 children’s hospices.
Soaring costs, falling funding
Costs to keep a children’s hospice running have spiralled by a third (34%) between 2021/22 and 2024/25 due to inflation and the soaring price of recruiting and retaining skilled and experienced staff. At the same time, support from the state has failed to keep up, forcing hospices to rely even more on public generosity to maintain care and support for seriously ill children. As a result, almost all (89%) children’s hospices in England expect their costs to exceed their income this year – this means that the vast majority are spending more than they’re bringing in.
For every £1 invested by the state, children’s hospices are providing over three times that value in care and support (£3.32), with the majority funded through charitable income.
We issued a series of Freedom of Information requests to local NHS bodies in England, known as Integrated Care Boards, which also expose just how patchily and unfairly local children’s hospice funding is distributed. While North East London spent the most in 2024/25 with an average of £434 per child, the neighbouring ICB, North Central London, spent the least with an average of just £23 per child or young person.
Key services at risk
With the UK Government committing to increase the NHS budget in England by £29 billion per year for each of the next three years, we’re urging ministers to protect, maintain and increase ringfenced NHS funding for children’s hospices in England, formerly known as the Children’s Hospice Grant, from £26 million in 2025/26 to £30 million by 2029/2030.
If this funding were not available after the end of this financial year:
-
50%
of children’s hospices in England would cut or stop providing end of life care.
-
43%
would cut or stop providing symptom management support.
-
80%
would cut or stop providing emotional and/or psychological support.
As ministers try to shift greater levels of healthcare from hospitals into communities, our amazing children’s hospices are doing more than ever before to provide crucial support to seriously ill children and their families. Funding desperately needs to catch up to recognise the fundamental role children’s hospices play in providing children’s palliative care.
As children's hospices' costs soar, they are having to rely even more on the generosity of the public amid patchy and unsustainable funding from the NHS. To expect the complex and often specialist healthcare these families need to be funded by charity shops and donations is wrong. We wouldn’t accept this for other parts of our health and care system, so to add more uncertainty to families’ lives when many simply don’t know how long they have left with their children is unacceptable.
Nick Carroll, Together for Short Lives' Chief Executive
The devastating impact on families
Laura is mum to seven-year-old Archie, who has Cerebral Palsy, a lifelong and life-limiting condition that affects his movement and coordination. It’s unlikely he will reach adulthood. They are supported by Jessie May Hospice at home in Bristol, which like many others, is facing growing financial pressures.
Over the past year, Jessie May’s charitable expenditure has risen sharply, while ongoing uncertainty around statutory funding has forced the hospice to draw on its reserves and rely even more on voluntary income. With integrated care boards (ICBs) under pressure to make savings, the future of Jessie May’s funding remains unclear.
“Jessie May has known Archie since he was six months old. They have been there through it all,” says Laura, “his needs are so complex, requiring around-the-clock care, at times it can be very difficult. Jessie May comes and looks after Archie so I can have a short break. As the years go on, caring for a disabled child is both physically and mentally exhausting. The truth is that I couldn’t live without their support.”
As it finalises its NHS 10-Year Plan, the UK Government must put in place a long-term, sustainable funding model for children’s palliative care in England. Immediately, ministers should act to protect and maintain the NHS Children’s Hospice Grant – and put it on a path to £30 million by 2030. Only by doing so can the government make sure lifeline services are not cut for seriously ill children, which could deny many the choice of accessing end of life care from a children’s hospice.
Nick Carroll, Together for Short Lives' Chief Executive
With children’s hospices across the UK experiencing unsustainable NHS and local authority funding, the charity is also calling for urgent action to be taken by ministers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
