Parliamentarians attend pop-up Hospice Care Week shop event

Pictured above: Sureena Brackenridge, Labour MP for Wolverhampton North East (R), with Emily Baddeley, Head of Communications and Marketing at St Christopher's (L)

The event, which was supported by St Christopher’s, aimed to highlight the important role that hospices’ retail operations play in providing funding for their vital services. MPs also heard that Hospice UK data shows income generated by shops has now surpassed the funding that hospices receive from government.

The pop-up charity shop featured real shop stock from St Christopher’s retail stores in London, and messaging highlighted statistics showing how much would need to be sold to pay for their services. For example, St Christopher’s would have to have sold the entire pop-up shop stock 13 times over to pay for one of their nurses for a year.

By holding the Parliamentary event as part of the Hospice Care Week campaign, Hospice UK are calling for short term emergency funding to prevent further service reductions and staff cuts – as well as a commitment to long-term reform of the unsustainable way in which the sector is currently funded.  

Over 100 MPs attended the pop-up charity shop, including frontbench politicians from across the political spectrum. They showed their support by talking about the case for change to representatives from Hospice UK, and St Christopher’s.

Many MPs also signed an open letter to the Minister for Social Care, pledged to submit written or oral questions on hospice funding in the House of Commons, and took photos with Hospice Care Week placards.

Sarah West, Director of External Affairs, Hospice UK, commented, “Our pop-up shop event in Parliament was another step forward in our campaign for fairer funding for hospices. We were pleased to see so many MPs show their support for our hospices and we hope that by doing so, even more momentum will be added to call for the government to provide a funding model that is a proper fit.” 

Minnie Watts, a hospice care nurse at Royal Trinity Hospice, who supported the Hospice Care Week campaign, says: “Being able to access hospice care is incredibly important for someone coming to the end of their life or needing respite care, but also for their family and loved ones. No-one should be unable to access the care they deserve because of a lack of funding, but that is the heart-breaking reality we are facing. 

“We are so pleased to see the popularity of charity shops across the country continuing to grow and the part they play in funding hospice care, but it is not a substitute for sustainable funding from government.”

Pictured above, L-R / descending:

Paulette Hamilton, Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington

Kim Leadbeater, Labour MP for Spen Valley

Rachael Maskell, Labour (Co-op) MP for York Central

Liam Conlon, Labour MP for Beckenham and Penge, with Ginger Bujdoso, Director of Retail at St Christopher's

Hospices are facing their worst financial situation in 20 years. On average, one third of hospice funding is provided by government. The remainder is fundraised, for example, through bake sales, fun runs and selling second-hand clothes. In fact, more money is now spent in hospice shops than hospices receive in Government funding. 

This unsustainable funding model has not withstood the cost of living crisis. The cost of delivering care has gone up but government funding has not increased with it.  

As a result, hospices are being forced to reduce their essential services. Over the last few months, six hospices have cut services and/or made redundancies. 

Hospices are community assets which take pressure off the NHS and prevent people dying in hospital who do not need to be there. 

The need for palliative and end of life care is increasing, and it is essential that we expand hospice services to meet current and future need. 

At least a fifth of UK hospices have either cut services in the last year or are planning to do so (May, 2024).

Hospice UK’s submission to the Autumn Budget recommended that HM Treasury provides £60 million a year for three years (a total of £180 million) to help hospices in England keep pace with rising costs.