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Bereavement services and support must sign up to an agreed set of standards, including ensuring they meet the diverse needs of the communities they serve.

The National Bereavement Alliance has comprehensively refreshed the Bereavement Support Service Standards with an audit that services can undertake to consider the quality of their work.

NICE and SIGN must develop guidelines for the delivery of bereavement support at all levels

UKCB steering partners have submitted a paper to inform a discussion with NICE about prioritising this work and are awaiting a decision from NICE about whether this has been prioritised. Similar representations have been made to SIGN.

All public, private and third sector bodies supporting bereaved people must commit to tackling inequalities in access to emotional support following a bereavement

During 2023/24 the National Bereavement Alliance will be refreshing the Bereavement Care Service Standards as part of its work for the Health and Wellbeing Alliance. This project will include a focus on tackling inequalities.

In response to the challenges that people identified in understanding what bereavement support is out there and might help them, the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre, Cardiff has collaborated with national partners to produce a new resource, the Grief Support Guide, based on research conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic and published on the National Bereavement Alliance website. The Guide, which has been viewed almost 7,000 times since September 2023, is available in ten languages and has been widely adopted, including in the RCGP’s End of Life Tool Kit and Macmillan’s e-learning resources, and by the Medical Examiners Wales, the Cremation Society and the Palliative and End of Life Care Programme Board (Wales). The Guide is updated annually and Version 2 is due to be released shortly.

Grief Support Guide

Bereavement through Covid 19

All UK Governments must commission further research to better understand the emotional support needs of people affected by bereavement with a particular focus on understanding how services can be improved for Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities and groups whose grief is disenfranchised.

The National Institute for Health Research issued a policy call in 2022 for Ethnic minority communities’ experience of accessing bereavement support services. The successful project, led by researchers at Kings College London and Sheffield University is now underway.

Governments in each UK nation must invest 79p annually per person in the population for transforming bereavement services over the next 5 years, with a particular focus on better supporting Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities, and others who are currently poorly served.

The government has reviewed the relevant pages of gov.uk, improving clarity about how to seek support for those that need it. Disappointingly, no progress has been made on securing national funding for the bereavement support. Anecdotally, the National Bereavement Alliance and Childhood Bereavement Network are hearing about significant funding pressures from their members, especially now that funding linked to the pandemic has largely ended.

The Welsh Government introduced a new funding stream for bereavement support services in 2021. It committed £3 million over three years, and an additional £420k for bereavement coordination posts at each of the health boards. An extension to the Bereavement Support Grant of £927k for 2024/25 has been provided, and a further BSG scheme worth £927k pa has been launched for 2025/28. Welsh Government also currently provides a minimum of 21% of hospices total funding in Wales and all hospices deliver aspects of bereavement support as part of their overall service provision.

Integrated Care Systems across England must support partnerships of bereavement services, mental health and other relevant services to address levels of need and ensure compassionate and appropriate referrals between services

The National Bereavement Alliance guidance to support Integrated Care Systems and place-based partnerships to commission compassionate community bereavement support across all types of death and relationships continues to be used by commissioners but in a piecemeal way. The NBA would welcome support from NHSE&I to cascade this guidance to all ICBs.