We’re signing an open letter to the chancellor

By Jan Noble, Interim Chief Executive

It’s been a worrying time for hospices across the country over the past few months. Many have had to cut services, some are cutting jobs. Increased costs and our NHS funding not keeping up with inflation is taking its toll.

A visit to parliament last month alongside Hospice UK meant the team here at St Christopher’s, the home of the modern hospice movement, were feeling slightly more optimistic. More than 100 MPs came and showed their support for our work and heard about the funding crisis. So last week we were keeping a close eye on the budget, hoping there might be a reference to the importance of end of life care.

Unfortunately, instead, hospices and the broader charity sector were dealt another blow with the rise in Employers’ National Insurance and broadening of the threshold.

This will cost St Christopher’s around £450K extra each year.

That total could’ve funded nine specialist community nurses, helping people stay at home, where they want to be and protecting the NHS’ resources.

And although we welcome the extra funding for the NHS, we’re so disappointed that there was no specific mention or allocation to hospices and end of life care.

We again call on the government and Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting to help ensure fairer funding for hospices and fix hospices’ broken funding model. Hospices are an important part of the health care system yet remain underfunded for existing services.

We are proud to sign this open letter organised by National Council for Voluntary Organisations and Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations to the chancellor on the impact of increased employer National Insurance Contributions for charities and the voluntary sector.

Please sign the letter here.