Sector news and updates

Hospices with gardens in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are eligible to apply for a Community Garden grant from the National Garden Scheme.

Grants between £1,500 - £5,000 are given to fund capital costs for plants and containers, materials for flower beds, vegetable beds and hard landscaping, greenhouses and polytunnels, seating, hand tools and certain power tools, and materials for providing refreshments - among others.

Applications are open between 29 September - 30 October, with early applications advised. Find full guidance and how to apply on the National Garden Scheme website.

If your hospice is sadly in a position of having to plan or consider any cuts or significant changes to staffing or services, we ask that you let us know as early as possible.

This helps us to understand emerging pressures across our membership, and where helpful, work with you on managing any potential media or political impact.

Hospice UK's teams are available to support you, as well as connect you with other hospices which have been in the same situation.

Get in touch by emailing policy@hospiceuk.org.

We have teamed up with ACEVO to offer a discounted annual membership for CEOs. ACEVO offers invaluable support to help chief executives and senior leaders make the biggest possible impact.

From tailored one to one support, and leadership development to networking opportunities with like-minded peers, ACEVO equips civil society leaders with the tools, resources, and community needed to thrive.

Full (CEO) members can receive a 10% discount by using the code HOSPICEUK10 at the checkout. If you would like to ‘try before you buy’ why not book onto an upcoming new member meeting (now open to non-members) and get a taste of what membership is like.

Whether navigating challenges or aiming to amplify the impact of their organisations, ACEVO is here to champion leaders' success every step of the way. Join today and lead with confidence and purpose.

The NHS Eye Donation Programme has published a newsletter and collection of educational resources to support hospice and palliative care staff in conversations about eye donation.

The resources aim to increase awareness and understanding of the eye donation referral process and help ensure more people have the opportunity to become donors. 

Applications are currently open for two Corndel apprenticeship courses. These fully-funded places are for people working in hospices in England.

Business Impact with AI

Developed in partnership with Imperial College London, supported by Microsoft and delivered by Corndel, this course is designed to help you to harness AI tools to implement real-world, transformative AI strategies for your organisation.

This course is aimed at hospice professionals at all grades and experience levels who want to learn how they can unlock the potential of AI to improve workflows and efficiencies.

An online insight session for this course takes place on Thursday 22 October, 11:30-12:30: find out more and sign-up on our website.
 
Data Professional Diploma

This Level 3 Data Technician Apprenticeship course will give learners the professional competencies that are increasingly required in a world in which the volume of data continues to grow rapidly.

This course is aimed at anyone who is not in a management or leadership role, that works with data in any business function within a hospice. Taking place over 14 months, this course will help you to better understand how to use data to analyse trends and inform decision making.

An online insight session for this course takes place on Tuesday 20 October, 13:00-14:00: find out more and sign-up on our website.

In July 2026, Hospice UK submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all 36 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England. Our findings revealed significant variation in the commissioning arrangements and funding of palliative care and end of life care services across the country.

Despite increased political attention, including from the Prime Minister, on the importance of fixing palliative and end of life care, the data shows progress in funding and prioritisation for these services over the past three years remains slow, with hospice funding in many cases in fact degrading due to inflation.

Last week we presented these findings to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hospice and End of Life Care. Read the briefing from the meeting online. We plan to use the data to continue to highlight the insufficiencies and inequities of current commissioning. We may use the data in the national media.

It is worth noting that more 'live' data on statutory income via our quarterly benchmarking survey does indicate some progress is being made. This FOI data however remains vital as it shows the system's own understanding of what is happening.

For more information, please contact our policy team.

The Children’s Commissioner for England has launched The Big Future – a national survey inviting children and young people aged 0–18 to share their experiences, concerns and hopes for the future. The findings will help shape national policy and ensure children’s voices are heard in decision making.

The survey is open to children in England until 23 October, and can be completed by children themselves or by parents and carers on their behalf.

By sharing the survey through your services, you can help ensure that the voices of children receiving hospice care – and their siblings – are included, and that future policy reflects their needs and realities. This may also be of interest to adult hospices who are supporting families through wellbeing services.

A stakeholder toolkit with ready-made resources is available to help you promote the survey across your networks.

Colleagues will be aware that Corin Dalby is due to hand in his petition about hospice care at Downing Street tomorrow, 20 October. He will be accompanied by people with lived experience, and a small number of hospice sector representatives.

The petition hand in is likely to generate some media interest given the strong visuals associated with this group going to Downing Street. In broad terms, this show of public support can be helpful in our sector campaigning. Our concern remains however that Corin, despite best intentions, is not equipped to effectively represent the sector's needs and policy asks to government, and has shown little willingness to collaborate with the sector in this respect.

Numerous hospices have been in touch expressing concern that Corin has been directly contacting their local media, with some local TV outlets planning to cover the hand in. Our advice has been that where it feels useful to you, to take part in the coverage in the normal way, using it as an opportunity to raise awareness of your services.

We have advised that in these pieces, expressing appreciation for the show of public support the petition represents makes sense - but would encourage spokespeople to move the conversation on to what hospices actually want to see from government in terms of policy choices, either using our four point plan, and/or talking about your local commissioning situation. Hospice UK will seek to do the same in any national media coverage.

Please contact our media team for further advice.

On 24 September, we gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Public Service Reform Committee, highlighting the vital role hospices play in delivering the aims for public service reform in Scotland.

Our evidence focused on the contribution hospices make to providing joined-up, person-centred care closer to home, supporting people and families before they reach crisis point, and helping to reduce pressure on hospitals and other parts of the health and care system.

Hospice care offers a practical lead case for the preventative, community-based approaches that the Scottish Government's public service reform agenda is seeking to achieve. We emphasised that hospices need sustainable funding and must be valued as equal partners if they are to fully contribute to the reform agenda.

Watch the committee session.

We were pleased to give evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Health, Care and Sport Committee on 30 September as part of a dedicated evidence session on palliative care, alongside colleagues from Marie Curie, Children's Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) and the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care (SPPC).

We welcomed the committee’s early focus on palliative care and highlighted the gap between Scotland’s policy ambitions for palliative care and people’s experience of accessing care on the ground.

Giving evidence on behalf of Hospice UK, Helen Malo emphasised the vital role hospices can play in meeting rising demand, tackling inequity and supporting a shift towards community-based care. We also stressed that palliative care should be considered as part of wider public service reform, and highlighted the need for a new national framework for hospice funding, to realise the sector’s full contribution.

Watch the committee session.

A Senedd debate on palliative and end of life care saw unanimous cross‑party support for the motion calling for fair, sustainable funding for hospice services.

Members from across all political parties spoke powerfully about the value of hospice and palliative care, recognising the compassion, expertise and vital support hospices provide every day in communities across the country.

Despite the vital role they play, we know that the financial situation continues to be challenging for hospices in Wales, with no guarantee that the year by year Welsh Government grants will continue. 

With the vast majority forecasting deficit budgets this year, with many forced to consider service reductions or delayed recruitment, we are urging Welsh Government to act quickly.

Find out more on our website.