Winchester children's hospice calls for urgent government funding
Naomi House and Jacksplace is part of a huge number of children's hospices running at a deficit this year
A Winchester hospice is calling for more government funding following new research finding seriously ill children could be denied the care they need.
Naomi House and Jacksplace in Winchester say they will be running at a £1.4 million deficit budget this year and are finding themselves with increasing costs.
In new research from Together for Short Lives, it's been found that some seriously ill children may be denied end-of-life care without further funding for hospices.
Mark Smith, CEO of Naomi House and Jacksplace, said: "We're finding ourselves with ever increasing costs but at the same time, a very challenging fundraising environment.
"We're calling for more funding from the NHS and from statutory providers so that we can be more reliable in terms of the income we get and therefore the services we can then give to families.
"This year, we'll be running a deficit budget of £1.4 million.
"That means that we're using our reserves.
"Whilst we've got a healthy level of reserves at the moment, spending £1.4 million of them every year won't take us long to get through them."
Mr Smith continued to say they only receive around 14% of their funding from government and statutory sources, meaning the vast majority of funds is raised through the general public through events, retail shops and activities.
He added: "Year to year, we're always not 100% sure where we're going to get our funds from.
"As you can see from the report and from our own position, you know that's a picture that's repeated across the country for many other children's hospices as well."
Naomi House supports children aged 0-18 and Jacksplace supports 16-35 year-old young adults.
Both hospices provide planned respite care, emergency respite care, symptom management, step down from hospital and end of life care.
Together for Short Lives is the leading body for children's palliative care in the UK and works with all 38 children's hospices as well as all providers of palliative children so could be condition-specific charities, hospitals and professionals that work in them.
They work with children's hospices to try and create changes in policies and funding but also work with them to ensure right services, research, and improving services and providing best practices. Some direct support to families predominantly online and via phone, too.
According to the research from Together for Short Lives, 50% of children's hospices are also looking at having to cut end of life care for families, with 93% having to consider cutting back on respite care.
Nick Carroll, CEO of Together for Short Lives, said: "The research that we've done with children's hospices shows they're in a really perilous situation at the moment.
"Costs continue to rise and they've seen them rise a third in the last three years.
"Utility bills and national insurance rises have added to that.
"They're continuing to see increased demand for their services and increased complexity of children that need their support as well.
"But at the same time, government and NHS funding has just not kept up with this.
"Quite simply, we need a multi-year solution, a multi-year children's hospice grant.
"We need it to be ring fenced, we need it to rise in line with those cost rises as well.
"Without this, I'm really sorry to say that we will find that seriously ill children will die without being able to access the support and services of a children's hospice, and I just don't think that's acceptable."