Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to improve the availability of support that is offered for the friends and families of suicide victims.

Providing better information and support to people bereaved by suicide is a key area for action in the Cross-Government Suicide Prevention Strategy for England. Effective suicide bereavement services should be provided through effective local partnerships between local authorities, National Health Service organisations and voluntary and charitable sector providers. Public Health England published a suite of guidance in 2017, in conjunction with the National Suicide Prevention Alliance and the Support After Suicide Partnership, to local areas for developing and implementing compassionate suicide bereavement services. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/support-after-a-suicide-a-guide-to-providing-local-services

Almost every local area has a multi-agency suicide prevention plan in place to ensure that all local services are working together to deliver tailored approaches to reducing suicides in their communities. Public Health England published updated guidance in 2016 to local areas on developing these multi-agency partnerships and plans and advised that local plans should reflect the key areas for action of the national strategy, including providing effective bereavement support. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/suicide-prevention-developing-a-local-action-plan

The Department funds the Help is at Hand suicide bereavement support resource, published by Public Health England, which provides compassionate information and signposting to people who have been bereaved by suicide. Help is at Hand provides helpful advice such as explaining the processes followed by authorities following a suicide, gives testimonies by other people bereaved by suicide and provides a directory of other organisations which can provide support. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/you-are-not-alone-help-is-at-hand-for-anyone-bereaved-by-suicide

We published Learning from Deaths guidance to the NHS in 2017, which was in response to the Care Quality Commission’s review of how the NHS investigates and learns from deaths. A key area of this document is how the NHS should engage and communicate compassionately and respectfully with bereaved families when a patient dies. We have made it clear within that guidance that we expect NHS organisations to provide bereavement support services, or signpost bereaved families to services, to ensure they can access effective support. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/national-guidance-on-learning-from-deaths/