Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has for the future roll-out of the National Bereavement Care Pathway; and whether he plans to expand that roll-out.

All bereaved parents, following baby loss, should be offered the same high standard of care and support in an appropriate environment. The Government committed full funding of over £100,000 for the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity (Sands) to continue the roll-out of the National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) in 2018/19. This builds upon £50,000 of start-up funding.

This funding has enabled Sands to actively support 32 NHS trusts and foundation trusts to implement the NBCP over the past two years. An evaluation of Wave 1 implementation found that 94% of parents who received bereavement care in the period the NBCP was used felt that all staff could provide a consistently high level of care and 98% felt they were treated with respect. We would encourage all services caring for parents who experience baby loss to adopt the NBCP. Care providers can access all of the NBCP standards, pathway materials and training resources via the following link:

http://www.nbcpathway.org.uk

The Department’s Business Planning process takes place annually. Expenditure, including any awards made through grant funding, cannot be confirmed until the Business Planning process has been concluded and budgets for the relevant financial year approved.