It is vital that children's hospices are properly, recognised, valued and funded by the government

Graham Collins, Association of Children's Hospices

While children's hospices receive only 4.2% of their funding from the government, hospices for adults get 32% of their financial backing from statutory sources.

The Association of Children's Hospices (ACH) said the imbalance between government money and fundraising was "staggering".

It also called for an overhaul of the way all hospices are funded, saying it is too complex and that there are inequalities across the country.

Brought in line

A meeting of The National Federation of Women's Institutes was due to debate the call for the funding of children's and adult hospices to be brought in line with each other.

Chairman of the ACH Graham Collins: "Children's hospices are now a very important option in the range of care available to life-limited children and their families.

"It is vital that they are properly, recognised, valued and funded by the government."

Children's hospices are independent, voluntary organisations that work with GPs, hospitals, social services and home-based care teams to give care to terminally ill children and their families.

There are currently 22 children's hospices operational in the UK and more are planned - including the first services for London and Northern Ireland.

The services are provided free to those who need them, but a children's hospice costs between �3m and �4m to set up and around �1m a year to run.

More than 3,000 children were helped by hospices in 1999.