Willen Hospice warns government grant welcome but doesn’t add up to fairer funding
In the midst of its campaign for fairer funding, Willen Hospice will next month receive a government grant of £144,000, but has warned that this will not resolve financial concerns about the future of its vital care services.
An extra £100 million of funding for the more than 200 hospices across England was revealed by the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, just before Christmas. Today Willen Hospice, one of the most poorly funded hospices in the country, found out its allocation of the one-off investment package. The charity will receive a first grant of £143,687 in March, and a second grant in spring 2026.
Richard Alsop, Director of Strategy and Development at the Hospice, leads the charity’s negotiations on NHS funding.
“We’re very grateful to the government for this one-off injection of money. We see it as recognition of the vital role hospices play in providing compassionate, high-quality end-of-life care, and of the precarious financial position that many hospices are now finding themselves in.
“However, the investment is a one-off and doesn’t resolve the longer-term funding challenge for hospices. Here at Willen, the amount we’re being given doesn’t even cover the increased employer National Insurance contributions that we’ll be paying from April. We hope this is just the first step on the journey towards fairer, more sustainable funding, so that we can start to plan confidently for the future and ensure we’ll be here for generations of Milton Keynes families to come.”
Richard Alsop, Director of Strategy and Development at the Hospice, leads the charity’s negotiations on NHS funding
Hospice funding is still very much a postcode lottery, with no national guidelines on how NHS money should be allocated to hospices. Just 13.8% of Willen Hospice’s running costs are met by ongoing NHS funding, which is less than half of the average amount provided to hospices nationally.
In neighbouring counties, services provided in the community are entirely paid for by the NHS. Whereas the Willen at Home team, who take the Hospice’s specialist care out into patients’ homes across Milton Keynes, receive no NHS funding at all. Their work is entirely paid for through charitable donations.
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