The popular Sands Audit Tool for maternity services: Caring for parents whose baby has died (2012) helps those responsible for commissioning and providing maternity services to assess the quality of care they provide to bereaved parents, and identify any improvements that are needed.

Sands has now produced a two-page Update to the  Audit Tool that takes into account recent research and recommendations  for care in hospital when a baby has died. The new references include  key documents such as Listening to parents (Redshaw et al, 2014) and the Sands Post mortem consent package (Sands, 2013), as well as  the standards set in NHS England’s Standard contract for perinatal pathology 2013/14, and lessons learnt from the Reports following the discoveries at Mortonhall Crematorium.

Hard copies of the Audit Tool, including the 2014 Insert, can be ordered from the Sands shop shop-sands.org/shop/ . The documents are free but there is a charge to cover postage and packing. You can also download the Audit Tool, including the Insert (see the final four pages), from the Sands website: www.uk-sands.org/