A CHILDREN'S hospice says it is "shocked" after Westminster turned it down for financial help.

Naomi House at Sutton Scotney lobbied the Government after £5.7m of its cash was frozen in a failed bank.

Hospice chiefs met Kevin Brennan, minister for the third sector, in London last month (January) to seek help.

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They came away upbeat, but a letter received by the hospice this week shattered their hopes.

In it, Mr Brennan said the Government was concerned about the impact of the recession on charities, but could not help.

He said: "We cannot target individual organisations for support. I am sorry I have not been able to offer you any form of direct financial assistance."

Khalid Aziz, who chairs the charity, said: "We are shocked that the minister has not been able to negotiate a satisfactory outcome to our predicament.

"The Government is turning its back on the 220 families who use Naomi House, and the needs of their terminally ill children.

"Even in normal circumstances we receive only 10 per cent of our income from Government, and now in our time of need they refuse to come to our assistance.

"To many of our families we are the only place they can turn to in times of distress and this response is like a huge door slamming in their faces."

The refusal comes despite Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, saying charities like Naomi House "would not be left on their own".

She made the comments while visiting Winchester in October just days after the Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander bank collapsed. Around 37 per cent of the charity's funds have been frozen ever since.

Just before Christmas it had to suspend its outreach service. Last month, it said the opening of the £12m Jack's Place extension for teenagers might be delayed because of a lack of cash for staff.

Said Prof Aziz: "The Government could prevent this, after all our £5.7m is a tiny sum in comparison to the billions the Government has found to date to bail out other sectors.

"They say the innocent ones always suffer, and this is certainly true here. I really can't believe that our families are any less important or less worthy of help.

"We will continue to work to recover our funds as quickly as possible, but this is a major setback in our fight."

The hospice still hopes to recover its cash through administration, but has warned that it could take "years rather than months".