Hospice boss 'delighted' at funding announcement

Trevor Johnson said the long-term commitment was "fantastic"

The chief executive of a charity that helps families caring for seriously ill children has said he is "delighted" over new government funding for children's hospices.

The government has said it will continue dispensing £26m annually, adjusted for inflation, to English hospices until the end of the current Parliament in 2029.

Earlier this year, Acorns Children's Hospice, which has sites in Birmingham, Walsall and Worcester, called on the government to guarantee long-term funding for children's hospices, and said it was in danger of its funding running out.

"This is money that is absolutely needed, the long-term nature of this commitment is fantastic," said Trevor Johnson.

"It gives us a platform where we're able to plan and make sure we're there for the children and families as we move forward.

"There's a wider conversation that we can now have around sustainable funding for the sector at large, but this is a great start and really does take the pressure off."

He said the hospice got 28% of its funding from such statutory sources, while the remaining 72% was through fundraising.

In November 2024, the government said hospices would get help to cope in the face of rising National Insurance costs and a drop in government funding.

In December that year, it said those in England would receive £100m of government funding over two years to improve end-of-life care.

'Three years of certainty'

Acorns received £2.2m from the children's hospice grant, but in July this year said money would run out in 2026.

The money from the latest announcement would pay for nursing staff, Mr Johnson said.

"Without this money, for the very first time in our history, we would've had to turn a child away because we wouldn't have been able to afford to care for them, which is just unthinkable," he told the BBC.

"It does mean that we've got some certainty on what that looks like for the next three years.

"We're delighted that the government has heard us and the 36,000 members of our community that supported us."