Palliative Care: Finance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme applies a currency model to commission (a) palliative and (b) end-of-life care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. ICBs are responsible for commissioning palliative and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations.
Details of currency models for the last year of life and end of life care were published as supporting documents to the 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme. This supporting document is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2025-26-nhs-payment-scheme/#heading-3
The currencies are not directly linked to payment for 2025/26, but providers and commissioners should ensure that all data items for the currency models are collected. The currencies should be used to inform ICB commissioning plans and to support service planning and local benchmarking, as well as evaluating service provision.
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