Willen Hospice warns government grant welcome  but doesn’t add up to fairer funding  

In the midst of our campaign for fairer, more sustainable funding, we will next month receive a government grant of £144,000, but have warned that this will not resolve financial concerns about the future of our vital care services.

An extra £100 million of funding for the more than 200 hospices across England was revealed by the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, just before Christmas. Today Willen Hospice, one of the most poorly funded hospices in the country, found out its allocation of the one-off investment package. We will receive a first grant of £143,687 in March, and a second grant in spring 2026.

Richard Alsop, Director of Strategy and Development at the Hospice, leads our negotiations with the NHS. “We’re very grateful to the government for this one-off injection of money. We see it as recognition of the vital role hospices play in providing compassionate, high-quality end-of-life care, and of the precarious financial position that many hospices are now finding themselves in.

“However, the investment is a one-off and doesn’t resolve the longer-term funding challenge for hospices. Here at Willen, the amount we’re being given doesn’t even cover the increased employer National Insurance contributions that we’ll be paying from April. We hope this is just the first step on the journey towards fairer, more sustainable funding, so that we can start to plan confidently for the future and ensure we’ll be here for generations of Milton Keynes families to come.”

Hospice funding is still very much a postcode lottery, with no national guidelines on how NHS money should be allocated to hospices. Just 13.8% of our running costs are met by ongoing NHS funding, which is less than half of the average amount provided to hospices nationally.

In neighbouring counties, services provided in the community are entirely paid for by the NHS. Whereas the Willen at Home team, who take the our specialist care out into patients’ homes across Milton Keynes, receive no NHS funding at all. Their work is entirely paid for through charitable donations.

Explore how you can be a part of our 20.25 Challenge and help us campaign for fairer funding through our Willen at Home appeal in 2025

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Each entry costs just £1.

You must be 18 years or over to play our Lottery. If you are buying tickets as a gift, the recipient must also be over 18.

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You will be sent your own unique Willen Hospice Lottery draw number(s). These are the numbers that are entered into the draw each week. Every Friday, (or closest working day if it’s a bank holiday) the winning numbers are selected at random by computer and prizes are mailed to winners automatically. You can also check the winning numbers each week on our website or see the winning numbers displayed in our retail shops.

If paying for a set number of weeks, we will send you a reminder two weeks before your subscription expires, so that you can renew if you wish. When renewing, please quote your Membership Number.

If you selected to make a recurring payment this will keep running until cancelled and will keep your lottery membership in credit, so that you don’t have to worry about renewing. You can cancel your recurring payment at any time by contacting your card provider or bank accordingly. If you choose to cancel your recurring payment we would be grateful if you could also notify the Lottery office so that we can amend our records.

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You and your recipient must be 18 years or over.

You will be given an opportunity to supply your own address as well as the named recipient’s details and to choose when and how they receive the tickets as a gift.

You can purchase a gift as a one off or as a subscription.

You can choose the start date of the gift.

We have a selection of gift cards for you to choose from. There is no additional cost for the gift cards.

Prizes available:

1st prize: £1,000, 2nd prize: £100, 3rd prize: £50, 4th prize: £50, plus 20 prizes of £10, rollover increases by £200 weekly to a maximum prize of £5,000.

Chances of winning: in 2019/20 there were, on average, 8,152 lottery players per week

If you win the main prize, we will try to contact you by phone to let you know. Always be sure to check your numbers on our Results page each week or in one of our shops. If you have bought your ticket in a shop, please get in contact. You will have six months to claim your prize.

If you have any queries, please speak to a member of the Willen Hospice Lottery team on 01908 303065 or email lottery@willen-hospice.org.uk   Address: Lottery Office, The Well, Newport Road, Willen, Milton Keynes, MK15 9AA

The regular donations we receive from our loyal Lottery players help us to future-proof our Hospice, whilst also giving us a chance to give back to you, our amazing supporters.

When the pandemic hit, we had to cancel or postpone our fundraising events and close our shops for months on end, but alongside our regular givers, our Lottery gave us the financial security we needed.

A huge THANK YOU to all of our Lottery players, past, present and future, for helping us to be there for local families.

Responsible Person: Nigel Birch.

Effective from 17 May 2024, Nigel Birch will be the name responsible person for Willen Hospice Lottery, and is registered with the Gambling Commission.

The responsible person from 17 February 2022 to 17 May 24 was Mark Rawlins and will therefore remain on all pre-exisiting printed stock until the expiry date or stock levels have depleted. All other information remains the same.

Promoter: Willen Hospice Ventures Ltd, Milton Road, Willen Village, Milton Keynes, MK15 9AB.

All net proceeds donated by deed of covenant to Willen Hospice (registered charity number 270194).

Registered with the Gambling Commission (www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk) under the Gambling Act 2005.

Willen Hospice is a member of the Hospice Lotteries Association.

We are committed to using Lotteries to fundraise in a responsible way, encourage responsible gambling and access to support if needed. Gambleaware and Gamcare provide support if required.

Willen Hospice Ventures Limited is licensed and regulated in Great Britain by the Gambling Commission under account number 4988

Before placing your entry, please read our Lottery Terms And Conditions 2021

On average our Lottery gives Willen Hospice around £263,000. You can feel good knowing that in 2019/2020 52% of every £1 went directly towards providing patient care. The remaining 48% went towards direct and indirect running costs, including the prizes. In 2019/2020 we gave out over £95,000 in prizes across our weekly Lottery, Grand Draws and Scratchcards. We consistently review our costs to keep them as low as possible.

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