A children's hospice is working at half capacity three years after it opened because of a funding shortfall.

There are eight beds at the Chestnut Tree House hospice near Arundel but staff are only using four of them.

The hospice, the only one of its kind in Sussex, also has two emergency beds but only one is open at the moment.

Hospice workers are keen to operate at full strength but say the money is simply not there to do so.

Chief executive Hugh Lowson said: "There are potentially 400 life-limited children across Sussex who we could be helping but at the moment we are only helping 150 of those.

"I find it very sad that we can currently only offer five beds but the ability to open more beds is completely dependent on the funding we receive."

The hospice currently costs £2 million per year to run and provides overnight respite care, care in the family's own home, sibling support, end of life care and bereavement support.

To run at full capacity would require £3 million per year.

Mr Lowson said: "For the first time ever last year, we received some Government funding but this was less than ten per cent of our annual running costs and not guaranteed long term.

"It is a sad reality there is not adequate government funding for the vital work that children's hospices do and until we have secure long term funding in place, it would be irresponsible of us to open more beds at Chestnut Tree House.

"It has always been our plan to open beds in a planned and measured way but of course we want to be running at full capacity as soon as possible for the children and families who need our help.

"We make no charge whatsoever for the care we provide and rely almost completely on donations and fundraising from our local community.

"To open to our full capacity would cost a further £1 million, funding we just do not have at present."

Chestnut Tree House provides a home-from-home environment for the children and their families.

The focus is to ensure that children and young people have opportunities and experiences that they might otherwise not have had.