Bereavement Counselling: Children and Young People
(asked on 9th May 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) financial support (b) guidance and (c) training his Department provides to child bereavement services to ensure appropriate support for children and young people.
The funding and delivery of National Health Service bereavement services, including the training of staff, is a local matter.
Bereavement care is a key part of the provision of good end of life care as set out in the Government’s end of life care Choice Commitment, published in July 2016. As part of this, Health Education England, in partnership with Skills for Care and Skills for Health, published a refreshed End of Life Care Core Skills Education and Training Framework in March 2017. This aims to standardise end of life care training and education, including around bereavement care. The Government’s Choice Commitment and the framework can be found at the following links:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/choice-in-end-of-life-care-government-response
www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/services/item/536-end-of-life-care-cstf-download
The importance of bereavement care is also reflected in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Quality Standard on end of life care, and other NICE end of life care guidance, which commissioners should take into account when planning services for local populations. The Quality Standard, which highlights that children may need specific tailored support to help them with bereavement, can be found at the following link:
The Quality Standard draws on a range of evidence, including older Departmental guidance such as When a person dies: guidance for professionals on developing bereavement services, first published by the Department in 2005, and updated in 2011 by the Primary Care Commissioning Service with support from the NHS National End of Life Care Programme and the Bereavement Services Association. The guidance can be found at the following link:
www.pcc-cic.org.uk/sites/default/files/articles/attachments/when_a_person_dies_19_oct_2011.pdf