- Children left waiting for discharge from hospital because of delays with housing or care packages, shortages of specialist placements, or inconsistent community health services
- New analysis shows more than 260,000 children spent three or more weeks in hospital during their childhoods – including 1,300 who spent more than a year there
- Children’s Commissioner calls for urgent action to improve home nursing, community care and specialist placements so children can leave hospital sooner, returning to their families and schools
Children are spending tens of thousands of days stuck in hospital when they don’t need to be because the support they need to go home is not available – meaning children who desperately need hospital care are left waiting for beds.
New analysis of NHS England data on the length of children’s hospital stays by the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza shows almost 70,000 children spent more than two months or more in hospital over the course of their childhood – 1,300 of whom were there for more than a year.
In total, more than 260,000 children spent three or more weeks in hospital during their childhoods – and on any given day, there are hundreds in hospital who do not need to be there.
Dame Rachel’s new report has, for the first time, identified the systemic barriers delaying children’s discharge from hospital, and causing them to miss out on family life, education and everyday childhood experiences.
It shows that as a result of medical advancements, more children with complex or life limiting conditions are living longer and more sustaining lives, but that the community services designed to support them outside hospital – including children’s social care, housing, education, and home nursing – have not kept pace.
As a result, children who are medically ready to leave are often waiting in limbo, forced to remain on hospital wards for prolonged periods while agencies try to arrange the care they need – and despite increasing pressure on NHS services and wards.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said:
“For all the debate and attention given to hospitals, waiting times and social care, children are rarely mentioned. Childhood is a short and precious time – so when a child spends months or even years confined to a hospital ward, not because they are too unwell to leave but because the right community support cannot be found, the system has failed.
“As ever, a lack of good data about these children’s lives is partly driving this failure. My work shows a hidden crisis, as services do not definitively know how many children are stuck, waiting to be discharged, how long they wait, or how many days’ worth of beds could be saved and offered to children who truly need to be there.
“As Children’s Commissioner I have the privilege of meeting patients in hospitals and hospices, and the dedicated staff who care for them – but I’ve also seen how capacity and resources in wider services fail children with complex needs and life-limiting conditions. These children are being denied the love and affection of family life, the chance to meet educational and social milestones, and the simple, everyday moments of childhood.
“We can no longer expect families to shoulder the impossible burden of care, or frontline staff to run on goodwill. The system must change, from one where children are keeps children in hospital beds without good reason, to one that is coordinated and compassionate, backed by the necessary funding.”
Dame Rachel’s report revealed more than 14,000 children have spent more than 10 per cent of their young lives in hospital, while over 400 spent half their lives there. Children from deprived backgrounds and ethnic minorities were disproportionately likely to experience prolonged hospital stays.
Despite this, the NHS does not consistently record how many children are medically fit to leave hospital but remain in beds due to factors outside the health service.
One hospital that does track this data reported that five per cent of children on its ward in June 2025 were medically ready to leave but were unable to do so. Healthcare professionals also said a lack of bed capacity impacted elective and emergency admissions, putting pressure on hospital paediatric wards.
Dame Rachel’s report identified several reasons for these delays, including:
- Long waits to secure community care packages, often caught in funding disputes between health and social care;
- A severe shortage of children’s social care placements;
- Inconsistent access to community care, nursing, palliative care and therapeutic services; and
- A lack of suitable housing for families, or long delays to adaptations and equipment needed for children to live safely at home with their loved ones.
Extended hospital stays can place huge strain on families, who often face difficult journeys between home and hospital, time away from work and the challenge of caring for other children while navigating complex and disjoined support systems.
Nick Carroll, Chief Executive of Together for Short Lives, said:
“I am very grateful to Dame Rachel de Souza and her team for using her statutory powers as Children’s Commissioner to collect the first data on how children are waiting to leave hospital because the health and care system is not taking responsibility for their care. Children living with serious illness and their families deserve many moments of happiness, supported by palliative care that enables them to thrive.
“Sadly, Dame Rachel’s findings reflect what Together for Short Lives has heard from families for some time: despite the incredible support that NHS and voluntary sector children’s palliative care services provide, too many families do not get the choice to access it at home or at a children’s hospice. This is due to workforce shortages, fragile funding and ministers not holding local NHS bodies to account for planning services which meet best practice standards.
“While Together for Short Lives will continue to work closely with officials to develop the new all-age palliative care modern service framework to address these challenges, I urge the UK Government to implement Dame Rachel’s recommendations in full.
Ceri Menai-Davis, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at It’s Never You, said:
“When a child is seriously ill, the impact is felt across the whole family and extends far beyond the hospital ward. Parents should not face financial or employment pressures at a time when their child needs them most and their focus must be on their care.
“The inclusion of Hugh’s Law in this report reflects a growing recognition that stronger support for families is needed. Strengthening that support is essential to building a system that truly works for children.”
Professor Isobel Heyman, Clinical co-lead for mental health at Cambridge Children’s Hospital and Dr Rob Heuschkel, Clinical lead for physical health at Cambridge Children’s Hospital said:
“The Children’s Commissioner’s report confirms what many of us in children’s healthcare recognise — excellent hospital care alone is not enough. When children remain in hospital not because of their medical needs but because the wider system cannot support them at home, we need a fundamentally different approach, one that connects hospital specialists with community teams, social care and schools from the start. We are already making progress across the East of England — with pilot projects exploring how digital technology and virtual wards can support children closer to home, reduce disruption to families and address unequal access to services across the region.
“Cambridge Children’s Hospital is being built to take this further. It will be the first specialist children’s hospital for our region, bringing together physical and mental health care so that a child’s psychological wellbeing is never a barrier to their recovery. It will include an embedded research institute focused on early intervention, and a hospital school working with children’s own schools to keep education on track, as well as extending specialist support into communities through stronger links with social care and home nursing. Our ambition is not just to transform care locally — but to create a national model for how children’s services work together beyond hospital walls.”
The Commissioner is calling on government departments to work together to build a coordinated system that enables children with complex needs to be supported safely outside of hospital. Her recommendations include:
- A new cross-government system bringing together health, social care and education to help children leave hospital sooner – ensuring the right support is in place at home or in a suitable specialist placement for those who cannot safely return home.
- A national plan to expand home nursing and care for children so families can rely on consistent nursing and support outside hospital.
- Guaranteed access to palliative care and end of life care for children, making sure these services are properly funded and available to children who need them, wherever they live.
- Improved paid leave for parents of sick children so that families do not face financial hardship while their child is sick.
