Bereaved Children: Government Support

Maureen Burke Excerpts

Thursday 26th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Maureen Burke (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) for securing this debate. We all know that there is no good time to be bereaved, no convenient moment to lose a loved one, and no guarantee that we are equipped to cope with loss at any time of life, but to lose a loved one as a child must surely be one of the most isolating experiences imaginable. Their friends have not encountered anything like it, and the adults in their life might not feel confident in knowing how to help them. From chairing the APPG on grief support, I know that as a society we remain woefully underequipped to handle grief among adults, let alone children who are navigating loss in childhood.

Bereavement that is left unaddressed can lead to serious problems at any time in life. For children, those problems are only magnified. It is well documented that grief that is left unresolved can lead to a pathway towards unemployment, crime, imprisonment and homelessness. If grief occurs in childhood, the effects can be lifelong and snowball into problems that can start to feel impossible to overcome.

Charities across the sector point to the lack of data as the starting point for our failure to properly support children who experience grief in childhood. We simply do not know how many children encounter bereavement. That means that we do not know where to target support or what the scale of the problem is. When support can be given, it is incumbent on all of us to encourage open, honest and frank discussions about loss. The work of charities such as Cruse and Winston’s Wish is incredible, but we should not have to rely on a postcode lottery of local organisations or the variable levels of staff training across our schools and colleges. Teachers need to know where to access dedicated support as soon as they need it, and they need training to help children when they need it the most.

There are, of course, many examples of good practice in supporting bereaved children across our schools, and I want to draw attention to the incredible work that has taken place at Oakwood primary school in my constituency. In the autumn of last year when the staff and students at Oakwood were faced with the tragic consequences of a car accident that led to the death of a classmate, they addressed the bereavement head-on, led by their incredible headteacher Vanessa Thomson. A garden of remembrance was created, and students were encouraged to speak out about their feelings with their teachers and each other. Encouraging conversation in this way and providing a dedicated space to grieve and talk about loss goes a long way to moving away from a culture of silence around death. Encouraging conversations about loss must be at the heart of any policy intervention in this area, and the work at Oakwood should act as a great example to others.

I hope that, by continuing to draw attention to the importance of supporting bereaved children through debates such as this and the work of the APPG on grief support, we can continue to improve the support available to staff, students and parents. This should start with collecting the basic data, which will enable us to get a better picture of what is needed and where.