Three-year government commitment on children's hospices funding is a 'big relief' - chief executive of Acorns
£26 million will be provided annually to children’s and young people’s hospices for financial years 2026-2027, 2027-2028, and 2028-2029
The government's decision to provide nearly £80 million of funding for children's hospices over three years is 'really welcomed' says the chief executive of West Midlands based Acorns Children's Hospice.
Starting in 2026, the government has committed to making sure for each financial year up to the end of the current Parliament in 2029, £26 million is available for those children’s and young people’s hospices who provide support for seriously ill children and their families.
Funding will be adjusted for inflation and distributed through local integrated care boards (ICBs), on behalf of NHS England.
Acorns, which has children's hospices based in Walsall, Worcester and Birmingham, started a petition earlier this year calling for the government to 'safeguard' its services by committing to longer-term funding.
It had received £2.2 million previously from the government through what used to be known as the children's hospice grant when that was announced last December, which gave £26 million to children’s hospices for 2025/26.
The charity, which cared for more than 780 children across the West Midlands and supported over 1,000 families in the past year, was 'genuinely concerned' though with the money due to run out it would have to make 'heartbreaking decisions' if it wasn't extended.
Chief executive Trevor Johnson says this continued funding now allows them to know they will "still be there for children and families".
He said: "What was frightening us more than anything was that the concern that at some point we would have to turn a child away because we couldn't afford to care for them if we didn't get this commitment.
"It's actually a real big relief that we've got a three-year commitment this time because the last three times that this has been extended it's been only extended for another 12 months.
"At least now we know that we're going to have this money."
The government say the allocation of funding for individual hospices over these 3 years is set be published in due course based on new prevalence data received by NHS England.