Date published: 24 July 2019 by Digital Team

Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity today wrote to new the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson MP, to welcome him to his new job, and to highlight the urgent need to ensure all families with a seriously ill child can access the emotional and practical support that they need.

Rainbow Trust Chief Executive Zillah Bingley said:

“With a bulging in-tray, we strongly encourage Prime Minister Johnson to keep up the momentum to improve children’s palliative care, despite the competing demands on his time.

Following the recent welcome news that the Children’s Hospice Grant will be increased to £25m by 2025, it’s now vital that both Government and NHS England quickly address the significant gap in funding for emotional and practical support for families with a seriously ill child, whether in the home and in the community, as identified by Catherine McKinnell MP.

Rainbow Trust’s West London team regularly supports families with seriously ill children in Boris Johnson’s constituency of Uxbridge and West Ruislip. However, there are many more families which need our support who do not live in areas that our teams can support.

We urge Prime Minister Johnson to act swiftly to end the current situation whereby accessing emotional and practical support depends first and foremost on where you live, and where community palliative care charities, such as Rainbow Trust, receive little or nothing from government or NHS funding.”

Earlier this month Care Minister Caroline Dinenage announced an increase in the annual Children’s Hospice Grant in response to a crisis in the finances of many hospices. However, services such as Rainbow Trust are ineligible for the grant, and the charity currently receives no funding from any Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) or from central government.