Government makes funding commitment to improve bereavement services

On 24 April Will Quince MP led a debate that highlighted the roll-out of the National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP). He called on the Government to provide additional funding to ensure that the pathway can be embedded across England by 2020.

The Government has pledged to provide £106,000 of funding to support the roll-out of the pathway during the next year. This builds on the original £50,000 investment in the first year of the programme.

Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price MP also provided an update on the Government's ambition to reduce stillbirth, neonatal death and the rate of prematurity by 2025 and said that a new body, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, has been funded to review around 1,000 stillbirths, neonatal deaths and births that result in brain injury each year in order to improve learning and practice.

The NBCP aims to ensure that all bereaved parents across the UK are entitled to high quality, individualised, safe and sensitive care. This investment will mean that the pathway can continue to be embedded in more trusts across England, and that more parents who experience the loss of their baby either before, during or after birth, will get the support they need.

Charities including Bliss, Sands, the Lullaby Trust, the Miscarriage Association, and ARC (Antenatal Results & Choices) helped develop the NBCP, along with professional organisations and with the support of the Department of Health and Social Care and All Party Parliamentary Group on Baby Loss.