15 Apr 2026 Care

The Kirkwood Joins National Call for Fairer Hospice Funding

This week, our Chief Executive, Michael Crowther, and Sonia Tyndall, Matron in Specialist Palliative Care, joined hospice leaders in Parliament, adding our voice to the urgent call for a sustainable, national funding model for palliative and end of life care

As Hospice UK reveal that 75% of hospices in England are currently running a deficit, and nearly six in ten have either already made or are considering cuts to frontline services, the future of hospice care remains uncertain.

Data shows that 380 beds are currently out of use in hospices across England, with specialist community visits also down by 20% on the previous year.

The Kirkwood has not been immune to the challenges. Financial pressures – caused by sharp increases in the cost of equipment, energy and food, as well as significant rises in the National Living wage and National Insurance contributions for employers – left our charity facing a £1.7m deficit in 2025. To protect our long-term survival, we were forced to make heart-breaking decisions, including reducing capacity our In-Patient Unit from 16 beds to 12, reducing the number of patients we care for in the community and saying goodbye to 33 dedicated colleagues.

From Crisis to Recovery

Following a year of immense challenge and extensive collaborative discussions, the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board – Kirklees Place (ICB) has recently agreed to an uplift in funding for The Kirkwood from April 2026.

This commitment from the ICB marks a significant step in the right direction. Whilst the funding doesn’t solve all our challenges or put us back to where we were before 2025, it sets us on a positive path. It is a vital vote of confidence in a new clinical model for palliative and end of life care here in Kirklees that will help us to reinforce our core services – returning our bed capacity to 16 from this month and enabling us to expand our specialist care within the community.

The new agreement was the result of months of hard work between The Kirkwood and healthcare partners, ensuring specialist palliative and end of life services become a key priority for the health and social care system across Kirklees.

The Vital Role of Our Movement

We would not be here without the overwhelming support of the people of Kirklees – particularly over the last 12 months. From our donors and fundraisers to our selfless volunteers, our community has rallied behind our cause, raising funds, making regular donations and writing to their MPs to call for fairer funding for hospices.

And our local MPs have been a strong, consistent voice in Westminster, advocating for The Kirkwood and the community we serve. Their leadership, alongside our community’s persistence, has been instrumental in ensuring that the needs of local patients remain high on the political agenda.

The National Context

While we have taken significant steps toward securing the future of hospice care with our local healthcare partners, the care a person receives at the end of their life should not depend on where they live. Our visit to Parliament is about ensuring that the stability we are working to build in Kirklees becomes the standard nationally. With 75% of English hospices facing a deficit this year, many are now facing into the same painful cuts we endured in 2025.

Michael Crowther, Chief Executive, and Sonia Tyndall, Matron in Specialist Palliative Care, join Hospice UK's Fairer Funding campaign in Downing Street.

Michael Crowther, Chief Executive of The Kirkwood, said: “While The Kirkwood is still recovering from the financial challenges we faced last year, the investment we have received from our local Integrated Care Board is a significant step forward. Whilst it doesn’t solve all our funding challenges, it’s a moment for real optimism. But we are at a crossroads. We cannot ignore that the wider hospice sector is under immense pressure. As part of the letter we are delivering to Downing Street today, we are calling on the Prime Minister and the government to reform the way end of life care is commissioned, to make sure that everyone who is nearing the end of life has access to specialist palliative and end of life care from their local hospice – and are supported to make the very most of the time they have left.

Our Commitment

The Kirkwood remains committed to working alongside the government, our MPs, and our colleagues in the hospice sector to ensure that palliative and end of life care is seen as a priority within the wider healthcare system. We want to see a world in which hospices are funded fairly and sustainably to ensure anyone who might benefit has access to the very best services. Support is needed now more than ever to ensure compassionate, expert care is a right, not a privilege.