Debate contribution: Children’s Hospice: Funding

Debate contribution by Mr Brian Kingston on 14 October 2024.

MLA

Mr Brian Kingston

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

14 October 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Children’s Hospice: Funding

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4590201

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. Members will be aware of the vital role of the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice in providing palliative care for children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and in supporting their families through extremely challenging times. From its premises in north Belfast, the Children's Hospice provides care for more than 350 children and their families throughout Northern Ireland, in their home setting and at Horizon House. Due to rising operating costs, the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice is facing financial challenges that have already caused a reduction in bed capacity and placed the long-term provision of care in jeopardy. That decrease in capacity limits the availability of and access to respite care at Horizon House for families across Northern Ireland. It is time for the Department of Health to step up and provide the quantum of funding that is required to protect that work for future children and families who may be affected by life-threatening and life-limiting conditions. The work of the Children's Hospice is far-reaching and impactful, as will be any cuts to services that will, inevitably, come from a failure to place this vital inpatient facility and outreach provision for our community on a more stable footing. It should be the collective aim of all in this place to ensure that the Children's Hospice is in a position to offer and deliver its full suite of services to every family that requires them. The Alliance Party amendment to our motion highlights a desire to see the provision of palliative care as a core Health and Social Care (HSC) service that is not dependent on any charitable fundraising. We have every sympathy with that intention. We are also cognisant, however, that steps need to be taken in the short term to stabilise current services and ingrain a degree of sustainability. Increasing statutory funding to meet 50% of the costs incurred by the Children's Hospice in delivering lifeline care and support to children and their families represents a reasonable, proportionate and minimum requirement of the Department and the Executive.

I thank the Member for making the point about the need for a palliative care strategy. The Northern Ireland Hospice and the Children's Hospice taken together require more than £20 million annually to provide their services. At present, statutory grants account for around 30% of that. That places an immense focus on charitable fundraising and, to a large extent, leaves the success of the service dependent on the generosity of the wider public and businesses. That imbalance needs to be addressed. The hospices' energy bills have risen massively in recent times, and the cost-of-living crisis has led to spikes in the cost of essential clinical and catering supplies as well as in the cost of insurance and security provision. Future budget allocations must recognise and rectify the debilitating impact that inflation has had on the Children's Hospice's expenditure. The charity's reserves are already dwindling. The hospice has long campaigned for a 50:50 funding model, and the Minister now needs to bring forward clear, time-bound actions to bring that model to fruition in the weeks and months ahead. The demand for services is increasing, yet income from fundraising has been decreasing. The hospice should not be expected to absorb increases in the cost of providing care in order to ease pressures in other areas of the health service. Every sector and service provider ought to be treated fairly. It is crucial that the Department come up with an agreed benchmark of financial need rather than rely on commissioning and accounting methods that do not have the confidence of the Children's Hospice. The Treasury and the Minister of Finance also have a responsibility to ensure that Northern Ireland has access to needs-based funding. Ultimately, however, there needs to be an agreed, ambitious plan from the Department of Health for how additional resources will be allocated to fortify and enhance our palliative care and hospice network. That must be done in co-design with the Children's Hospice, with children and their families at its core. It is not good enough for the Minister simply to say that it is for the Children's Hospice and the Northern Ireland Hospice more generally to review their finances, get to grips with the situations themselves and chart a more sustainable way forward. In fact, that would be entirely at odds with the approach that the Department of Health has adopted for its own budgetary situation. Staff are already going above and beyond to deliver the best possible care in a highly constrained environment. The current financial settlement is simply not sustainable. Let us not forget that the Children's Hospice and the Northern Ireland Hospice more generally are contributing enormously to care in the community beyond the confines of their inpatient services. That includes specialist nursing care at home and the Tiny Horizons service, which provides palliative care for patients right from diagnosis during pregnancy. The Northern Ireland Hospice as a whole remains deeply committed to providing specialist palliative care. It is imperative that it see practical action from all parties in the Assembly to ensure that it can deliver on its mission.

860 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:21 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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