Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice has said 16 jobs are at risk of redundancy due to a £1m funding gap caused by “rising staff and energy costs [and] uncertainty over future statutory funding”. 

The Huddersfield-based charity, which has 170 staff and provides clinical care and support to families in West Yorkshire who are facing or living with the loss of their child, has launched an urgent fundraising appeal in response to the situation.

Gareth Pierce, chief executive of the hospice, said the charity was entering a period of consultation and that 16 staff were at risk of losing their jobs.

“As a result of rising staff and energy costs, uncertainty over future statutory funding and a tough year for fundraising and in our shops, we face a real-term gap in our finances of £1m,” he said. 

“We need to take action now to protect our future and ensure we can continue to be here for the local families who need us.

“Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice is therefore entering into a period of consultation to permanently reduce our annual running costs by 12 per cent (about £750,000 a year) and launching an urgent appeal for help from our local community.

“To reduce our costs, we’ll be making changes to our operating model and service offer. Unfortunately, this means that we anticipate that up to 16 staff may be made redundant. This has been a very difficult decision, and one that has not been taken lightly.”

Jeremy Cross, chair of Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, said: “By doing all that we can to make up the shortfall in our finances now, we’re making sure we can be here for families, today, tomorrow and in the years to come.

“The truth is that even though we provide essential support to children and families across West Yorkshire, support they can’t get anywhere else, we’re not underwritten by the government or the NHS. Simply put, if we run out of funds, our children’s hospice won’t be here anymore.”  

Toby Porter, chief executive of the umbrella body Hospice UK, said it was “utterly damning that a children’s hospice providing such critical services to children and their families has been put in this position”. 

“I am thinking today of the staff and volunteers at Forget Me Not, and of course of the families they so brilliantly support,” he said. 

“We have been warning for months of the financial fragility of the hospice sector. We need more than warm words. We need immediate and significant financial investment into palliative care services for children.”

Hospice UK, which represents the UK’s hospice sector, described the recent increase in employer National Insurance as a “kick in the teeth for a sector already on its knees”, and requested £110m in urgent, recurring funding until long-term reform is put in place.