End of Life care - let's make a change

Our vision is aimed at ensuring local health care services can properly work together to provide timely and consistent access to palliative and end-of-life care to everyone who needs it. It sets out bold goals, to:

• Expand our reach
• Enhance our community-based support
• Strengthen our role as a palliative care hub for the wider region

But the landscape in which we operate has shifted dramatically.

We’re in a perfect storm of financial pressures, including real-term reductions in statutory funding, inflationary cost increases, and rising demand for our services. This has turned the trajectory we originally set out on its head and our timescale to achieve all we set out to last year is now not possible.

At the core of this challenge is a chronic funding imbalance

Statutory funding has fallen below 28% of our overall costs—far lower than the UK average for hospice support of 35%. Meanwhile, inflation has risen by over 25% in the last four years, fundraising has become increasingly difficult, and the competitive healthcare employment market has forced us to keep pace with NHS pay uplifts despite receiving far lower financial support.

These pressures have already forced difficult decisions, but we are not standing still and are doing more than ever to raise money and save costs wherever possible.

Adapting to the new reality

The next three years must now focus on protecting and sustaining our core services and ensuring that every £1 invested in our care goes further while maintaining our commitment to high-quality, patient-centred care.

While we remain committed to the growth priorities outlined in our original strategy, we must now acknowledge that expansion will only be possible if new funding sources are secured.

Our communities deserve the very best care at the end of life, and we remain determined to grasp opportunities for service enhancement whenever they arise.

Without action, local people will face fewer choices at the end of life, placing further strain on an already overstretched NHS and social care system.

Our vision, therefore, is about resilience and responsibility. It is about finding new ways to meet growing demand within constrained resources, while continuing to advocate for fair and sustainable statutory funding. It is a plan that reflects the reality of today—but remains firmly rooted in the vision of a better tomorrow for everyone who needs our care.

Our Vision is more important than ever: Everyone on the Fylde Coast has access to ‘timely’ and ‘consistent’ integrated palliative and end-of-life care and a good death. And Our Purpose is never-ending: Enabling compassionate care on the journey to end of life.