Written question WQ85099

The Welsh Government is committed to ensuring that anyone requiring palliative and end of life care in Wales should have access to the best possible care.

We have delivered on our Programme for Government commitment to review voluntary hospice funding and have made an additional £2.2m available to Welsh hospices from 2022-23 on a recurrent basis. This is in addition to the £8.4m that we continue to invest every year to support specialist palliative care services across Wales. We have no plans to remove this funding beyond 2022-23.

The voluntary hospice funding review is the first phase of a wider review of statutory and voluntary palliative and end of life care. Work on Phase 2 of the review including specialist and generalist provision and the full age spectrum of children and adults is now underway. This phase will consider the models of provision, any geographical variation and an understanding of the value delivered by these services. The recommendations from this second phase of the review will inform whether further investment is needed.

Work to establish a national programme board for end of life care is also progressing well, as is the work to prepare a legacy statement for the End of Life Care Board. The new National Programme Board will take over responsibility for palliative and end of life care in Wales from the End of Life Care Board on 1 July 2022. We will continue to keep both the financial and staff resources needed to support both the national programme board and implementation of quality statement under review and give consideration to bringing in additional resources should they be required.