Less than a third of hospices feel they are engaged with council commissioners, according to a new survey by a charity.
In addition, only 34% reported currently being engaged with their local health and wellbeing board, Help for Hospices found.
Some 36% of hospices felt that palliative and end-of-life care was a low priority for their health and wellbeing board or not on its agenda.
A spokesman for the charity said hospices were working to improve engagement with commissioners and health and wellbeing boards.
One hospice told the charity: ‘Arrangements with local authorities have got worse because their funding is being cut so much and they will try to avoid paying for, say, step down nights because we are too expensive and then there is no care package at home that is appropriate so we end up providing an emergency bed and huge upheaval, rather than planned care, and they have to pay in the end anyway.’
The survey also found that half of hospices in England have had their NHS statutory funding either cut or frozen this year.