This change comes at a time when two in five hospices nationally are reducing services. Our costs continue to increase whilst our funding is staying broadly the same. This financial year we have budgeted for a loss of £1.5 million. Whilst we can manage this by carefully using our reserves, it simply isn’t sustainable long-term.

We’ve done all we can to try to bridge this gap without affecting our care services, such as making significant savings in our non-clinical teams, finding efficiencies, and exploring new income streams. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been enough. To protect our future and make sure we are here for generations to come, we’re making some difficult but necessary changes.

This has not been an easy decision. When looking at where we can make savings, we have focused on protecting the specialist care that only we can provide. There are many local care providers who provide personal (also known as domiciliary) care for people at home, including at the end of life. We believe our expertise is best used to support them rather than offering the same service.

This change is not a reflection on the team or the service; we know that they have done a brilliant job and have been highly valued by patients. Sadly, we can no longer afford to deliver this type of care.

No. The hospice is not closing.

While we are in a financially challenging position, we have reserves (savings) to see us through the short-term. Our commitment is to continue serving our communities by providing high-quality, compassionate palliative and end of life care.

What we are doing is redesigning our services to ensure care is equitable, sustainable, and aligned with our available funding. This work is about securing a financially sustainable future for St Wilfrid’s Hospice, so we can continue to support patients, families, and communities both now and in the years ahead.

No, we will still be supporting people at home.

Our clinical team, made up of Nurses, Doctors, Healthcare Assistants, Social Workers and Therapies teams, will continue to support patients with specialist care at home. And Nurse Line, our 24/7 help and advice line, will remain open for patients, families and professionals.

The thing that will change is that we won’t be providing regular visits for personal care (also known as domiciliary care). The NHS is responsible for providing personal care at home for those who are assessed as eligible, including at the end of a person’s life, and does this through various care providers that exist in our area. We believe our expertise is best used to support these providers, rather than duplicating their services.

Personal care (also known as domiciliary care) is hands-on support with daily activities such as washing, dressing, toileting and eating. It is provided by trained care assistants through NHS funded care at the end of life when the individual cannot manage these tasks themselves.

The small number of patients who have been receiving this type of care from us have all been contacted to talk about what happens next. We are working closely with our partners in the NHS to make sure that no patient is left without appropriate care.

We are continuing to support local care providers through our education programme and 24/7 Nurse Line so that, together, we can give people the best possible end of life care.

We will lose roles equating to 9.69 full time colleagues - which is a 6% reduction in hours. This affects fifteen colleagues working in permanent roles. In addition, sixteen colleagues working flexibly though our bank team are affected.

We are currently looking at alternative roles within the hospice for some of those affected.

It is important that we continue to offer our specialist palliative and end of life care through our Inpatient Unit, Community Team, Living Well hub and 24/7 advice line (Nurse Line). To do this we need to make sure we have the right people in the right roles, which means we need to fill vacancies as they arise. Where appropriate, those affected by the recent consultation were given the opportunity to apply for alternative roles within the hospice.

In line with our plan to reduce costs, some of the roles currently on offer are shared with other local hospices. This will help keep costs to a minimum whilst delivering maximum benefit to St Wilfrid’s.

Yes, non-clinical teams and the leadership team have both seen a reduction in hours over the last year.

Last spring we made reductions in our workforce of more than 450 hours – without reducing our services. This included office staff and leadership team.

Further to this, before proposing this change to our service, we looked at every area of the organisation and made reductions across all directorates.

Whilst we have made efficiencies where we can, we still need good support teams and a strong leadership team in order to support our dedicated frontline team to deliver the kind, compassionate care they are known for.

No. We will stop offering personal care to patients at home, so we will not be using agency staff.

St Wilfrid’s Hospice has experienced the same significant financial challenges in recent years that all other hospices have faced. This is due to inflation, the rising cost of living, and increased national insurance contributions.

Alongside this, the amount of money we have received from gifts in wills in the last two years was less than forecast, and this has had a major impact.

Last year we announced that we would need to take action to bring our costs in line with our income. Since then, we’ve done all we can to try to bridge this gap without affecting our care services. This has included making significant savings in our non-clinical teams, finding efficiencies, and exploring new income streams. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been enough.

We would like to clarify that the highest salaries in our organisation relate to our medical team, not the CEO. This is set nationally through the medical pay circular, and it's not something we're able to influence locally.

Our CEO pay reflects the scope and responsibilities of the role. As a charity and healthcare provider we have a duty to ensure that our services are delivered with professionalism and compassion. This means we need a great team, and we need to pay them appropriately. Our remuneration board sets salaries using benchmarking to make sure they are fair and in line with similar roles in the charity and healthcare sector.

We are not asking anyone in the organisation to take a pay cut to address our financial challenges, but we have made reductions in staffing across all areas of the organisation as part of our plan to brings costs and income in line in the next two years.

No, our CEO has not had a big pay rise. As a hospice we have committed to matching NHS pay scales, so any changes to pay are in line with NHS pay rises. They are applied fairly across the entire organisation.

Five employees earned over £60k in the year to end of March 25. This is a combination of senior clinical staff and our leadership team.

Our highest salaries relate to our medical team, not the CEO. This is set nationally through the medical pay circular, so it's not something we're able to influence locally.

Our leadership team is made up of six directors and the CEO. Some are part time, or are shared with other organisations (namely St Michael’s Hospice in Hastings, and East Sussex Hospital Trust). Together, the director and CEO hours are the same as 4.9 full time roles. This has been a conscious decision from us to keep costs to a minimum.

We also have nine trustees, who are all volunteers. They are responsible for controlling the work, management and administration of the charity on behalf of its beneficiaries. It is worth noting that our trustees are listed on the Companies House website as directors as they are responsible for the organisation. However, they are unpaid.

In the last financial year (2024-25) we spent over £11 million, and received almost £8.5 million.

This change is about long-term sustainability, and not short-term savings. The shortfall in funding for our domiciliary care service has been increasing year-on-year, and we expect this to continue due to inflation and cost-of-living rises in salaries.

Over the next five years our forecasts show that this change could save around £1 million.

This change is about long-term sustainability, and not short-term savings. While an appeal would bring a welcome injection of funds, it wouldn’t secure the regular, annual income needed to run the personal care (also known as domiciliary care) service provided by our Care@Home team. Staff salaries (which make up most of our costs), transport, and medical supplies all have an ongoing cost that require continued funding, year-in, year-out.

Our future appeals will focus on raising the essential funds needed to run our specialist palliative care services, such as our community and inpatient services. We are hoping that our spring appeal, due to launch at the end of March, will raise enough to cover the cost of a nurse for the next year.

Over the past year we have seen amazing generosity from our local community, and we are hugely grateful. The proposed change is not a reflection on local supporters, who have stepped up when we asked.

It costs over £11 million a year to provide hospice care locally, with less than a third of this coming from government. This means that your support is as important as ever. There are lots of ways to help the hospice – from playing the Local Hospice Lottery from £1 per entry, to setting up a regular gift, taking part in an event, or leaving a gift in your will. Find out more under the ‘support us’ menu.

If you are unable to support financially, there are other ways you could help. You could join our team of more than 500 volunteers who help in the hospice, in our shops and at our events. Find out more at stwhospice.org/volunteer.

You can also raise the issue of the funding crisis in hospice care through your MP. And you can help spread the word by following us on social media and liking and sharing our posts.

You may have noticed quite a lot of work to improve our building over the past year or so and wonder how we can afford it.

We were grateful to receive grants totalling £716,000 from the government as part of their commitment to support hospices. These can be used for buildings and equipment, so have helped us to improve parts of the hospice building. For example, it allowed us to replace our nurse call system which was in need of renewal. We have also used the grant to install more solar panels and purchase electric vehicles, which will reduce our electricity and fuel bills for many years to come.

The grants were one-off payments, so don’t help us with our long-term funding issues. They also can’t be used for salaries, which account for more than 70% of our costs.

Without sufficient future funding it will become increasingly challenging for us to provide the level of care our communities need.  At a time where demand has never been higher, we are having to consider doing less. This is a national problem, with two in five hospices making cuts.

We continue to look at ways to increase income and reduce costs. Our CEO also continues to work closely with national bodies such as Hospice UK to lobby for fair funding. But we can’t rule out further changes to services.

We are focussing on our core mission to ensure that expert end of life and palliative care continues to be here for generations to come. It might just look a bit different.