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The vast majority of children with life-limiting conditions in Wales are unable to access support from either of the country’s two children’s hospices.

Jacob Foster, the interim chief executive of Ty Hafan Children’s Hospice, said around 400 children are able to receive support from Ty Hafan and Ty Gobaith – despite more than 3,000 children in Wales having a life-limiting condition.

Mr Foster was speaking after the two hospices received a £770,000 funding boost from the Welsh Government.

He welcomed the funding, which he said would allow the hospices to record an almost balanced budget for 2023/24.

He continued: “Without this funding, both children’s hospices would have run at a deficit, drawing on limited funds held in reserve.”

However, he said the funding does not allow Ty Hafan or Ty Gobaith to “meet anything like the demand for the care we provide.”

Mr Foster explained: “This means that, right now, the vast majority of children with life-shortening conditions in Wales are simply unable to access any support from either of Wales’s two children’s hospices.

He said the “discretionary and one-off payments” are “no substitute for long-term sustainable funding which would allow us to plan longer term and reach many more of those children and their families who so desperately need our support right now”.

With the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the need for sustainable funding is “becoming ever more acute”, admitted Mr Foster.

“Children and families who receive our hospice care call it a lifeline,” he said. “We believe that every child and family should be offered that lifeline.”

He said the two hospices currently receive less than 14% of the cost of children’s hospice car from NHS Wales or the Welsh Government.

“Whilst this one-off payment is very welcome it does not change the fact that hospice care for children in Wales continues to depend overwhelmingly on the wonderful generosity and kind support of businesses, communities and individuals across Wales and beyond – for which we remain incredibly grateful and without which we would not be here for children and their families when they turn to us.”