Government to fund the roll-out of the National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) across England.
Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price MP has announced that the National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) is to receive £106,000 in funding during 2018/19.
The announcement was made during an adjournment debate on the Pathway in the House of Commons that was tabled by Will Quince, MP for Colchester and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Baby Loss.
Dr Clea Harmer, Chief Executive of Sands (stillbirth and neonatal death charity) and Chair of the National Bereavement Care Pathway Core Group, said: “It’s fantastic that the Health Minister has tonight promised £106,000 to fund the National Bereavement Care Pathway for the current year. A big thank you to Will Quince MP and all of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Baby Loss for consistently championing the Pathway and helping to secure this vital money.
“This financial pledge means that all partners working on the Pathway can continue to deliver on our joint ambition to embed it across all NHS England Trusts by 2020 in line with government commitments on improved patient safety, maternity services and bereavement care. This will make a real and significant difference to improving the care and support offered to parents and families whose baby has died before, during or shortly after birth.”
It is vital to offer consistently excellent bereavement care and support to anyone who has lost a baby or pregnancy, but a recent survey by Sands found that more than a third of health professionals agreed that their NHS trust needs to do far more to improve bereavement care for parents.
The effectiveness of the Pathway is currently being tested at 32 sites across England, in a wide range of settings; from Health Visiting to GP surgeries, from Neonatal Wards to Paediatric Pathology and from Midwifery to Gynaecology.
Five experiences of pregnancy or baby loss are included in the Pathway including miscarriage, termination of pregnancy for foetal anomaly, stillbirth, neonatal death and the sudden unexpected death of an infant up to 12 months.
