Debate contribution: Children’s Hospice: Funding

Debate contribution by Ms Sian Mulholland on 14 October 2024.

MLA

Ms Sian Mulholland

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

14 October 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Children’s Hospice: Funding

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4590251

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I recognise the essential role that the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice plays in the lives of children with life-limiting conditions and the families who love and care for them. The hospice provides not only critical palliative care for those children but much-needed emotional and practical support for families navigating the most challenging circumstances, as my extended family, unfortunately, has had to know. The service is not just vital; it is absolutely irreplaceable. We know, however, that the hospice faces enormous financial pressures driven by rising costs and inflation. It is deeply concerning that a service that provides such crucial care to our most vulnerable children has to rely on charitable donations to survive. The Government must take responsibility for ensuring that care is funded sustainably and consistently year after year. We propose that children's palliative care should be formally recognised as a core part of the Health and Social Care system with guaranteed funding that keeps pace with inflation so that the burden of fundraising does not fall on the hospice or the families who depend on it. The Northern Ireland Children's Hospice receives £1·9 million in core funding from the Department of Health, alongside that one-time payment of £85,000, yet rising costs, particularly due to inflation, have not been matched by that funding. As a result, the reduction in the number of beds that it offers represents a heartbreaking reality for children and families who need the hospice most. The hospice is the only service of its kind. There is nowhere else in Northern Ireland for them to go. It requires an investment to continue its life-saving work. If we look at how children's palliative care is funded in other regions where Governments have stepped up in some way to support those essential services, we see that, in the past two financial years, the Scottish Government have covered Children's Hospices Across Scotland for up to 30% of its costs and the year before that it was 41·6 %. In Wales, they covered almost 20%, and, in England, they covered over 30%. In Northern Ireland, it is less than 10%. Those examples show that children's hospices in Great Britain are recognised as a fundamental part of healthcare, not just as optional charitable services. Northern Ireland must adopt that approach, but we are not there yet. While the £85,000 cut from the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice's budget was reinstated for the rest of the financial year, the hospice faces significant financial pressure. Even with that core funding being guaranteed annually, it is not enough to meet the rising demand and costs. Without long-term, sustainable financial solutions, the hospice will continue to face the threat of cutting services, which no family relying on that care should ever have to hear about or worry about during that time. We cannot lose sight of the fact that behind the numbers that we are talking about are children and families who are already facing unimaginable challenges that no parent or child should ever have to face. They should never have to consider the added worry of whether a hospice will be in a position to provide care for their dying child. The Northern Ireland Children's Hospice brings dignity, compassion and comfort to those families in their most vulnerable moments, and it is our duty as public representatives to ensure that the hospice has the financial support that it needs to continue that vital work. I call on the Minister of Health to make that long-term sustainable funding a priority and a permanent commitment, not a temporary solution or sticking plaster. My party, for its part, will continue to push for comprehensive funding that will allow the hospice to focus on what matters most: caring for children and families, not fundraising.

625 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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