1 week Ago By Paul Gallagher
Hospices around the country will start reducing services and could be forced to close due to a significant financial crisis which charity leaders say will worsen due to changes announced in the Budget. One in five of the UK’s 200 hospices have already made service cuts in recent months or are planning to, according to Hospices UK, even before the sector is hit by the imminent rise in national insurance contributions and the minimum wage, as set out by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in October. Hospices sounded the alarm on the eve of the Budget with chief executives telling i the plans created uncertainty over finances.
Employers will now pay a national insurance rate of 15 per cent while the minimum wage will rise from £11.44 to £12.21.
Hospices UK described the changes, due to come into force next April, as “potentially disastrous” for a sector already facing a £60m financial shortfall. Several charities have joined forces calling for an exemption to the increases. Some 60 cross-party MPs have signed an open letter to Care Minister Stephen Kinnock, to be published on Monday, calling on the Government to provide emergency funding for the charitable hospice sector and to commit to long-term reform of its funding model.
“This is to prevent further cuts to frontline hospice services and staff,” the letter, seen by i , states. The MPs say the funding hospices receive from Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) is inconsistent and often does not reflect the cost of the services hospices provide on behalf of the NHS. They write: “The hospice sector’s unsustainable funding model has not withstood the cost of living crisis and hospices are reducing services and making frontline staff redundant as a result.
“Hospices can be a key partner in supporting the Government to shift more care into the community. Hospice services keep people out of hospital who do not need to be there and ensure they can die in their place of choice with the care they need. “We call on you to provide short-term funding to prevent more cuts in the sector and commit to working with Hospice UK on a long-term funding solution for hospices that is fit for the future.
” Latest figures show that hospices provided palliative and end of life care to 300,000 people in 2022-23. Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations who receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. On average, one third of their income comes from government with the remaining two thirds raised by fundraising, which has been hit by the cost of living crisis.
A Liverpool baby hospice was saved last week after the city helped raise funds for a new home. Zoe’s Place, a charity that cares for children with life-limiting conditions from birth to the age of five, needed to raise £5m in weeks to find new premises, while an extra £1.4m was needed to help the hospice stay open in the meantime.
Zoe’s Place is one of three baby hospices in the UK which support children with life-limiting conditions, in some cases offering end-of-life care. The Liverpool service helps about 50 families each year. However, many others remain under threat due to significant financial pressure, with one in five already having made service cuts or planning to.
Six hospices have already announced service reductions and redundancies this year, Hospices UK said. Read Next What benefits can I claim as a carer? Carer's allowance and other schemes explained In September, Lichfield-based St Giles Hospice announced that it was proposing to cut around 15 per cent of its workforce as it faced “unsustainable rising costs” . The charity said a real-terms reduction in NHS income, large increases in utility costs and reduced voluntary income were to blame.
That followed Hospiscare announcing it would replace its care at home service with a new rapid-response care service to ensure its long-term future, having already cut the number of beds on its ward in Exeter. According to Hospiscare , the latest figures show it receives just 15 per cent of its funding from the Devon ICB compared to a national average of 27 per cent. Tony Collins, chief executive of Saint Michael’s Hospice, North Yorkshire-based Herriot Hospice Homecare, and Just “B” Bereavement Support, told i : “The Budget has worsened the future outlook at this stage.
Most NHS ICBs around the country increased their funding by a very, very small percentage so the financial gap has widened. Our costs are going up between 7-10 per cent, but the average funding increase was around 1-3 per cent. “As only around 25 per cent of hospice care is funded, there is already a significant burden on raising the money elsewhere.
But fundraising has become harder as we’re still dealing with the cost of living crisis so we’re being pinched from many sides. The fact there are a lot of service closures and bed closures isn’t surprising. Unless there are signs [of improvement] I would expect to see a lot more of that.
“The voluntary sector within the NHS, albeit a smaller part of the NHS itself, is absolutely crumbling. You have this bizarre situation where the state funding of the hospice sector is, for the first time, less than we made through selling clothes in charity shops.” Hospices will start putting together their budgets for 2025-26 in the next few months and if there is no solution on the horizon, more hospices will be forced to close, Mr Collins said.
“The national insurance and minimum wage rises will add around £400,000 to the cost of running our two hospices next year. I can categorically state now I can’t take that, so either we need to find a way to cover that or I need to decrease costs. That’s a dire state to be in.
” The extra £22bn announced for the NHS in last month’s Budget was “incredibly welcome” but Mr Collins said there was “no detail” as to how much of that would filter down to hospices and care homes. Officials said further details on allocation of funding for next year would be set out in due course. Katie Reade, head of policy & public affairs at Hospice UK said: “Even before the Budget announcement, the UK hospice sector was facing a £60m funding gap, with fair staff wages as its largest expense.
The national insurance rise will only deepen the crisis, adding hundreds of thousands of pounds in additional costs for the average hospice. “Without urgent financial support and long-term funding reform, more hospices will be forced to cut essential services. The Health Secretary has recognised that hospice funding is imbalanced, and has outlined plans to expand community and end-of-life care.
However, without a firm commitment to sustainable funding, these vital services are at serious risk.” Officials said that while the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by NHS staff and services, they recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, play in providing support to people at end of life and their families. A government spokesperson said: “We want everyone to have access to high-quality end-of-life care and are aware of the financial pressures facing the hospice sector, and of the huge generosity of the British public, whose donations provide a significant proportion of hospice funding.
“We are determined to shift more healthcare into the community and ensure patients and their families receive high-quality, personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and hospices will have a big role to play in that shift.” i reported last month that charities were asking for an exemption to the national insurance increase. Reports on Sunday suggested the government was looking at helping hospices by providing more funding through the NHS, according to the Guardian.
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