Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is available for (a) women and (b) partners who have experienced pregnancy loss or baby loss; what steps his Department is taking to improve (i) funding for, (ii) provision of and (iii) access to support services for those who have experienced such losses; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on access to support services for pregnancy loss and baby loss for (A) women and (B) their partners.

The Government has funded the Stillbirths and Neonatal Death charity (Sands) to work with other baby loss charities and Royal Colleges to produce and support the roll-out of a National Bereavement Care Pathway. The pathway covers a range of circumstances of a baby loss including miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy for medical reasons, neonatal death and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The Government announced £4.2 million of additional funding to mental health charities and charities providing bereavement support during the COVID-19 pandemic and is taking a cross-Government approach to assess what is needed to help ensure that families and friends of those deceased get the support they need.