Ty Gobaith, the Conwy based Children's hospice helping local families deal with end of life care for their loved ones, have welcomed news that extra vital funding is being made available.
"We welcome the announcement from the Welsh Government that there will be £880,000 extra each year for children’s hospices in Wales".
The Minister for Health and Social Services, Eluned Morgan MS, announced that the additional allocation of government funding will be shared jointly between TÅ· Gobaith and South Wales-based TÅ· Hafan on a recurring basis.
This increased funding means Ty Gobaith will receive around 21 per cent of their costs of providing care to the local children and families that need services the most in Wales - bringing funding in line with what children’s hospices in England, including Hope House, already receive.
The hospice has also welcomed the decision to distribute this additional funding via the NHS Collaborative, ensuring that Ty Gobaith has discretion over how such additional funding will be spent.
This is the first time additional statutory funding has been made available to Wales’ children’s hospices since 2007.
Together with the fantastic support and continued generosity of the people and businesses of Wales, it is an important step in building towards a sustainable future for TÅ· Gobaith. It will help them to recruit more nurses and to build more resilience into the services in the hospices and in the community.
This funding will also help extend the breadth and depth of services and to provide more respite care for those who so desperately need it.
Chief Executive, Andy Goldsmith, said: “Thank you to everyone who has supported our campaign for fair and sustainable funding for the children’s hospices, including our families, and to the Welsh Government for responding to our ask.
“This increased funding is a major first step forward in ensuring the “Lifeline” that children’s hospices provide is available for every child and family that needs us. We look forward to continuing to work with the Welsh Government to fund and develop services to meet the growing and changing need for the specialist care and bereavement support that both TÅ· Gobaith and TÅ· Hafan provide in Wales.”
Chief Executive of TÅ· Hafan, Maria Timon Samra, said: “Together with TÅ· Gobaith we have been campaigning for a sustainable funding solution for Wales’ children’s hospices. We are delighted by the Welsh Government’s commitment to act on the recommendations of the hospice funding review.
“This funding will mean a great deal to the hundreds of families our hospices support every year. We thank the Minister, Eluned Morgan, Deputy Minster, Julie Morgan, and Members from across the Chamber, for their support for this Lifeline fund, not forgetting those Government officials who have also worked on this review.
“We look forward to continuing to work with them to create a Wales that is more compassionate and supports children with life-limiting conditions and their families. For them, our hospices are often the only place they can receive crisis and respite care and support.
“The calls for a Lifeline Fund for Wales’ children’s hospices stemmed from the Family Voices Report, jointly commissioned by TÅ· Hafan and TÅ· Gobaith, in which children and their families described the two hospices as their ‘lifeline’”.
Andy Fletcher, Chief Executive of Together for Short Lives, the UK’s children’s palliative care charity, added: “I welcome the Welsh Government’s decision to allocate this funding to TÅ· Hafan and TÅ· Gobaith.
“Children’s hospice care is a lifeline for thousands of seriously ill children and families across the UK, providing, short breaks for respite in an appropriate clinical setting, vital end of life care bereavement care and more.
“Every child and family in Wales who needs it should be able to choose to access children’s hospice care, safe in the knowledge that it is sustainably funded.”
To find out more about the work of Ty Gobaith and do help with their on-going fundraising efforts, please visit https://www.hopehouse.org.uk.