“The money we have received has been really important to us,” says Jo Carby, who runs Wigan & Leigh Hospice. The Hindley site put £150,000 into fixing flat roofs last year and will spend a further £350,000 on new boilers and a memory garden - support she says helps stabilise a long‑running deficit.

That local picture framed a national promise in Liverpool on Tuesday 25 November 2025: Care Minister Stephen Kinnock told the Hospice UK conference a Palliative and End‑of‑Life Care Modern Service Framework will arrive in spring 2026 to end unwarranted variation - a “floor” under standards overseen by the National Quality Board.

Kinnock said the government’s “biggest investment in a generation” is now in train: £100 million in capital across 2024–26, administered via Hospice UK - £25 million released in February and a further £75 million in July - with more than 170 hospices upgrading beds, IT and family spaces.

For children’s services, ministers confirmed almost £80 million over three years to 2028–29, distributed through ICBs and adjusted for inflation. The announcement came on 16 October during a visit to Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in Barnet, which received £882,000 this year.

The minister also pointed to Liverpool’s 24/7 palliative hub, evaluated between 2021 and 2023, which was linked to fewer emergency admissions and more people dying at home. On the ground, the IMPaCT partnership already runs a round‑the‑clock advice line for Liverpool and South Sefton on 0300 100 1002.

Why that matters here is simple: too many people still die in hospital when they would choose home or hospice. National figures for 2023 show 42.8% of deaths in hospital, 28.4% at home and 5.2% in hospice, with 60.3% having an emergency admission in the final three months.

To shift care closer to home, the framework will push ICBs towards strategic commissioning instead of annual grants or blunt block‑contracts, with shared care records, earlier identification, multi‑disciplinary support and stronger out‑of‑hours cover part of the brief.

On assisted dying, Kinnock kept the government neutral but practical: if Parliament passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, officials will focus on safe, workable implementation. The bill completed Commons stages on 20 June and is now under scrutiny in the Lords.

The sector’s message back is blunt. Hospice UK welcomed the capital as vital modernisation but says long‑term funding reform is still needed “so care is there for everyone who needs it”. In September, the charity warned roughly two in five hospices were planning cuts this year amid rising costs.

In Wigan, that pressure shows up in day‑to‑day maths. The hospice says it must raise thousands every day through shops, a lottery and events just to stand still - a task made harder by the cost of living. “It’s a really tough time for hospices,” Carby said.

For the North West, the test is delivery. Cheshire & Merseyside and Greater Manchester ICBs will need to show how 24/7 advice lines, same‑day community response and routine advance care planning are becoming standard - and publish the data that proves fewer avoidable hospital deaths.

Back in Liverpool, the IMPaCT helpline shows what round‑the‑clock advice can do; in Hindley, a warmer, watertight building shows why capital matters. The 2026 framework will be judged on whether families from Leigh to Southport see that consistency close to home.