RECENTLY, the Government announced £64m worth of grants for hospices and carers.

The money came from its New Opportunities Fund, which makes grants from Lottery cash and it was trumpeted as including “the largest ever single investment in palliative care for children in England”.

Hospices had to bid for the cash and Richard House Trust and its children’s hospice in Beckton, east London, was awarded £143,000 for a bereavement service, £399,967 to expand its palliative care at home and £649,557 for its hospice care.

Demelza House, in Sittingbourne, Kent, which also cares for children from the News Shopper area, was awarded £647,332 for its hospice care.

The money, spread over three years, will be a welcome boost for the coffers of both hospices, which need to raise at least £1.5m a year, to keep going. But it will only last for three years. Neither hospice receives any money to help pay for its core costs from the NHS.

News Shopper has been campaigning for more than a year to try and persuade the Government to provide some core funding from NHS funds. Adult hospices, on average, get about a third of their costs paid by the NHS. Children’s hospices get an average of just four per cent and many, like Demelza and Richard House, get nothing.

We have enlisted a large number of MPs from across the country in support of the cause. Many wrote to the junior health minister Hazel Blears asking exactly what money the Government provides to keep the country’s 23 children’s hospices afloat.

She outlined a series of Government initiatives which she claimed provided support to children’s hospices. “The government appreciates the valuable work undertaken by children’s hospices where they provide a key element in the care of children with life threatening illnesses, and support for their families,” she wrote.

But do any of her pledges stand up to scrutiny?

CHILDREN’S HOSPICES GET MONEY DIRECT FROM THE NHS: “As with hospices for adults, there is provision for children’s hospice funding to come direct from the NHS,” Ms Blears told MPs. She said how much money the hospices got, was a decision for local Primary Care Trusts.

The News Shopper has challenged this, pointing out that the majority of children’s hospices get nothing from the NHS. “We do not believe shifting responsibility onto PCTs for the Government’s lack of core funding for children’s hospices is an acceptable answer to the problem of their funding,” we told her.

The Department of Health replied by repeating its view that it was up to PCTs to decide whether or not to provide some funding for children’s hospices.

It ruled out ring fencing some cash specifically for children’s hospices, saying PCTs had to look at all kinds of care depending on a family’s needs.

LOTTERY MONEY: Hospices were invited to bid for money from the New Opportunities Fund – Lottery cash which will last for only three years. Hospices have already voiced concerns about how they will be able to support new services, set up with NOF money, when the three years is up.

Ms Blears told MPs: “I should make it clear that NOF money will be in addition to NHS funding. It will not replace it.” But she ignored the fact most children’s hospices get no NHS cash so Lottery money will be their only extra funding. And if it is Lottery money, it is hardly Government support.

SPECIAL GRANTS: Ms Blears referred to two grants, administered by local councils, which could provide money for children’s hospices. She said the Carer’s Special Grant and the Quality Protects Programme were available to fund respite care at children’s hospices. She said both grants had been extended to five years and that the money available for the carer’s grant had been increased to £85m this year.

But the extension means 2003/4 is the last year. We understand the grants’ guidance notes do not even refer to children’s hospices and that no one, not even the hospices themselves, believe they are eligible to apply. To date, no children’s hospice in the country has had any money from either grant.

When News Shopper pointed this out to the DoH, it replied: “The Association of Children’s Hospices has been fully briefed on how to apply.” News Shopper believes the junior health minister has misled MPs into thinking the Government is providing financial support for children’s hospices, when the plain truth is – IT ISN’T.

If you want to support the News Shopper’s campaign, write to your MP and ask them to press Health Secretary Alan Milburn or write to him or Hazel Blears direct at the Department of Health, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NL.