Palliative Care & Hospices
The Wolfson Foundation has funded palliative care since the early days of the modern hospice movement in the 1960s. The Foundation's grants have helped to fund the capital infrastructure underpinning the expansion of the movement, as well as research and teaching, encouraging high quality palliative care both generally and within hospices.
Grants are made to adult and children's hospices for new buildings, major refurbishment work, equipment or vehicles. Projects funded relate either to patient care or to training. Over the past three years nearly £4 million has been allocated to over forty projects. Under this programme, hospices are generally encouraged not to apply more than once every five years.
Occasional grants are made to fund research into palliative care. These should be submitted under the Foundation's programme for funding medical research in the usual way.
The Foundation also has a programme of funding for the training of palliative care medical staff, administered by Help the Hospices. This recognises the importance of ongoing training and also that many palliative care organisations struggle to find the necessary funding for this important, core cost.