Budget 2026: $15.5m palliative care fund for children
Thursday, 14 May 2026
Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced $15.5 million will go towards funding palliative care for children in the upcoming Budget.
While up to 3000 children with serious illnesses may require paediatric palliative care support each year, there is just one publicly funded palliative care specialist for children at present at Starship Hospital.
The investment would allow more children to be cared for at home, surrounded by their families and loved ones, rather than spending long periods in hospital, Brown said.
Spanned across four years, two teams would be established to travel throughout both the North and South Island, including physicians, clinical nurse specialists, social workers, clinical psychologists, and nurse practitioners.
Read more:
The urgent need for a national palliative care service for dying kids
Helping parents navigate the unthinkable ‒ why are dying kids reliant on charity?
'It's just so not right': The postcode lottery for the care of dying children
The new services will begin rolling out from mid-2027, with both specialist teams expected to be fully operational by mid-2028.
The funding also provides for national service co-ordination and one registrar training position each year in specialist paediatric palliative care, helping build the workforce for the future.
Health NZ will also fund Rei Kōtuku, a specialist paediatric palliative care service in Wellington, through a contract starting 1 July 2026 to provide care while the national specialist service is established.
Established from philanthropist funding, Rei Kōtuku, has supported 62 children at the end of their life since its start in 2023.
The Post first highlighted the postcode lottery for dying kids in July 2022, when palliative care specialists Amanda Evans and Ross Drake first called for a nationally funded service.
An anonymous donor then funded Evans to set up charity Rei Kōtuku, to give families from Wellington to Hawke’s Bay access to specialist care. But Evans never stopped advocating for every Kiwi family with dying children to get specialist support.
A report in 2024 by Rei Kōtuku found three out of four dying children do not get specialist help, because the only publicly funded specialist palliative care service is in Auckland.
National mortality data showed 75% of children died in hospital, rising to 78% of Māori and 88% of Pasifika.
Wellington mum Nicola Swan lost her son James to a rare condition in 2018. The family struggled with no specialist child palliative care support and, eight years later, they still carry the burden of that.
“We still live with that toll … if we had had the opportunity to have specialised paediatric palliative care, I think our journey still would have been very hard, but it would have been a little less harrowing than what it actually was for us.
“When it comes to children, it's not only the child that is going through it, it's their siblings, their parents, their grandparents, the wider whānau, and everybody deserves that level of support.”
So the announcement that a national service would finally be funded left her speechless.
“It's been a long time coming and for all these families and kiddies who are living in these darkest times for them, this should have happened so long ago. It shouldn't have been a fight, but it's just incredible that it's finally over the line.”
Kate and Grant Collins were grateful to receive palliative care through Rei Kōtuku for their 54-day-old baby Oliver, who suffered a brain aneurysm.
If they didn’t live in Wellington, they would not have been able to leave the hospital, a challenging environment to be in when everyone else’s baby was recovering.
Kate Collins said it was “quite devastating” to think of other new Zealanders who have not been able to access the same care.
“When we were told that he was going to die, we had no clue what to do, and having Amanda step in, the team knowing what to do and guide us through everything, it was the best.”