“There is so much support for your child and the whole family – all the services offered are like the scaffolding, literally holding up your life so you can keep going, knowing you have that safety net is just crucial. I don’t think people can ever truly understand how hard it can be having a child with such complex conditions, but everyone at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices does because they live it with us; the terrifying scary times, when she’s really poorly or if she’s having low self-esteem, who do I turn to? I turn to Shooting Star Children’s Hospices.”
Guard the Grant
The NHS England Children’s Hospice Grant provides funding to children’s hospices like ours across England. It has existed since 2008, and currently provides around £25 million a year in ring-fenced funding split between over 40 children's hospices. However we have had no confirmation from the government that the grant will continue after 2024. Please add your voice in asking the Government to confirm that the grant will continue in it's current form, and increase inline with inflation – without it many children's hospices will have no choice but to cut vitally needed services.
Britt, Zoe's Mum
How you can help
1. Contact your MP Ask them to support our campaign
The constituencies of 41 MPs are covered by our catchment area. Contact your local MP and ask them to support us by writing to the Secretary of State for Health to ask for confirmation that the grant will be protected.
2. Add your voice Learn more about our cause
Alongside Together for Short Lives over Children’s Hospice Week (June 19 – 25) we will be calling on the government to confirm that the Children’s Hospice Grant will continue, and will be ringfenced. The more people we have behind our campaign, the louder our voices will be.
3. Donate and help support our work
Even if we can get the Children’s Hospice Grant protected at its current level, only 30% of the money we need to run our services at their current level will come from government funding. By donating, you’ll be helping ensure we can still be their for children with life-limiting conditions, and their families.
What your support made possible last year
2,379
Symptom management
support contacts
355
Nights of end-of-life-care
127
Nights our bereavement suites were in use
1,813
Nights of respite care