Hospices have “fallen through the cracks” of the government’s £101.5m of funding announced for the charity sector, a sector body has warned, after details of the funding were announced last month.
Toby Porter, chief executive of Hospice UK, told Civil Society that the announcement of the details on the first £71m in funding was “underwhelming” for the hospice sector, which had hoped to receive more support through the initiative.
While he said that any package of financial support from the government to charities is welcomed, the number of hospices that will receive the funding will be “almost negligible”.
‘Only 17 hospices in England are eligible’
While the funding is welcome, it is “not a relevant pot of money for our sector at all” due to the eligibility criteria, Porter said.
He said: “Whilst £100m is the tip of the iceberg given the amount of money spent by the charity sector on essential services such as hospice care, the announcement in the spring budget of dedicated funding for charities gave hospices tentative hope that some support was on the horizon.
“But now the details have been laid out we estimate that at most only 17 hospices in England will be eligible to apply for some of this funding, leaving the rest with no additional help.
“Hospices sit in a unique position, providing vital healthcare but primarily funded by charitable donations. It seems that with this funding they have fallen through the cracks of the system.
“It is incredibly disheartening for the majority of hospices who won’t be eligible for any support, despite crushing cost pressures threatening their ability to plan care for people who need it.”
‘£100m does nothing for the hospice sector’
Porter emphasised he did not intend to criticise anything about the funding in its own right.
He referenced his appreciation for the government emergency funding hospitals and care providers received during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I think the £100m is a good thing. But it does nothing for the hospice sector and I understand that it's good to focus on other sectors this time because actually, the hospice sector did very well three years ago.
“But the strategic question of what should the government do to better support the charitable hospice sector through rising cost pressures and income pressures remains very live.”
Hospices could be a ‘critical government partner’ in terms of meeting current demand
There should be a population-based approach to determine the right amount of funding for hospices from government, Porter said.
Demand is rising for the sector while philanthropic giving is falling and hospices struggle to keep up with salary uplifts, he said.
“The hospice sector has a huge potential to be a critical government partner in terms of meeting demands in the UK. At a time when we should be doing more at the moment, the financial trend without extra support means that we are doing less.”
When hospices are close to one another, they should be collaborating to ensure better care.
“At Hospice UK we’re pro-collaboration,” he said. “It’s the future of the sector.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) told Civil Society: “Whilst we recognise that hospices are facing pressures due to increased delivery costs, as many other charities are, hospices receive funding from a range of sources.”
In 2020, Hospice UK helped to distribute £200m of emergency government funding to hospices during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, NHS England recently released £1.5bn of funding to integrated care systems to manage rising costs of energy and inflation.
