The multi-year funding, distributed through local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, builds on the Government's previous £100m investment.

Around 99,000 children in the UK are living with life-limiting conditions, a figure that has tripled in the past two decades.

The funding commitment, running for the remainder of this Parliament, aims to strengthen hospice services as part of the Government's 10-Year Health Plan to move more care into community settings.

Minister of state for care Stephen Kinnock said: ‘Through this funding we are making sure hospices can continue delivering invaluable, compassionate, and high-quality care to children and their families – and ending the cliff edge of short-sighted, annual funding cycles – providing certainty for children's hospices, but crucially for those they care for.'

Toby Porter, chief executive of Hospice UK, said: ‘This is a welcome and significant first step to placing the children's hospice sector on a sustainable footing. The stability provided by a multi-year settlement will have a real impact on the care children's hospices provide and the families they support.'

News of the funding came after the Liberal Democrats revealed that 50% of children's hospices would cut or stop providing end of life care altogether if new funding was not guaranteed in six months and a Hospice UK survey which found more than half of hospices ended the 2024-25 financial year in deficit, with one in five seeing a deficit of over £1m.

Liberal Democrat care and carers spokesperson Alison Bennett said: ‘While this announcement goes some way to help children's hospices, it entirely ignores the profound issues in funding adult hospices. The Government must go much further to deliver the real change hospices are crying out for.'

The Lib Dems called on the Government to reverse the rise in National Insurance hike that cost hospices £34m last year.