Hampshire hospice facing over one million pounds of deficit call for more statutory funding
A Hampshire hospice are calling for more statutory funding to "ease the constant burden" to find funds
A Hampshire hospice are calling for more statutory funding as they face a £1.5 million deficit.
It's believed one in five hospices in England have a deficit of more than one million pounds.
Naomi House and Jacksplace hospice say they're also seeing a rising number of children with life-limiting conditions.
Mark Smith, CEO of Naomi House and Jacksplace, said: "If we set deficit budgets each year, then there's only so long that our reserves can continue to support that deficit position.
"So that's why we're challenged each year to be able to find new ways of generating money, and if we don't, then the only option we have at some stage is to start looking at what services we can maybe reduce, slim down or maybe even cut.
"Of course, we don't want to be doing that and the whole team here is dedicated towards delivering outstanding services to families, and that's what we want to keep doing.
"So to contemplate thinking about reducing our services is something that none of us really want to do.
"But unless we can actually make our books balance over a period of time through utilising our reserves, but also investing in our fundraising and the activities we're doing, then that's ultimately it.
"The plan is to reach a point where our income and our expenditure balances out so that we are sustainable for the future."
Mr Smith told us sustainable funding would make "so much more of a difference".
He said: "If we could just increase our statutory funding to a position of maybe 20 to 25%, that would ease the constant burden on us to try and go out and generate new funds all the time from voluntary sources.
"It would make a huge difference for us in terms of sustainability and having a sure footedness in relation to funding going forward that we can then build on with our voluntary income."