Children’s hospice charities are facing a total shortfall of £34.3m during the current financial year with many already cutting back on the support they can offer families, research is warning.

The research by the charity Together for Short Lives found that more than four in five children’s hospice are forecasting an operating deficit in 2026/27. This is an increase on the three in five in deficit during 2025/26.

It also found that one in three of the UK’s 38 children’s hospices have been forced to reduce short break for respite care they provide, more than one in ten have cut end of life care and around one in six have slashed their hospice at home services.

Together for Short Lives acknowledges the UK government has allocated £80m to children’s hospices until 2029 but says more funding is needed.

“If they do not, more demands will be loaded onto overstretched hospital services and too many families will be isolated and alone,” said Together for Short Lives chief executive Nick Carroll.

The charity also wants to see more support from the devolved governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Rising costs and falling funding

The charity warns that the children’s hospice charity sector is being impacted by rising demand, increasing costs and falling funding from the NHS and local authorities.

It found that while there has been a 40% increase in demand for support, funding to children’s hospices by integrated care boards (ICB), which commission care, rose by just 4% in 2025/26

Researchers also warn “this funding is distributed patchily and unfairly” with Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB spending an average of £407 per child with serious illness, compared to NHS Northamptonshire ICT spending only £32.

Meanwhile, between 2024/25 and 2025/26 children’s hospice charities average spending increased by 18% from £5.3m to £6.2m. Rising demand, energy prices and recruitment costs are among issues they are facing.

Carroll added: “These critical services, and the families they care for, continue to be let down by a system which varies wildly according to where they live and, too often, overlooks them.

“As demand for children’s hospice care grows and becomes more complex, unfair and unsustainable funding is pulling us further away from the government’s goal: that every person who needs palliative or end of life care in England will have equitable access to high quality support, shaped by what matters to them, their families and carers.”

Staff from hospice charities across England gathered in Westminster in April calling for “urgent action on funding, as services are cut and pressures reach breaking point”.

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