Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to tackle regional disparities in access to specialist mental health support for parents following baby loss.

We are committed to ensuring that all parents experiencing the devastating loss of a baby receive timely, equitable, and compassionate support, regardless of where they live.

Every National Health Service trust in England has signed up to the National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP), supporting the delivery of consistent, individualised, and sensitive bereavement care. NHS England is working with Sands to support faster and more consistent implementation, and the NBCP has been included in its Medium Term Planning Framework for 2026/27 to 2028/29.

To reduce regional variation, NHS England has funded all integrated care boards to establish seven-day bereavement services across maternity settings. Currently, 38 of 42 integrated care boards and 115 of 120 trusts offer this service.

Maternal mental health services are now available in all areas of England, providing specialist psychological support for women experiencing moderate-to-severe or complex mental health difficulties arising from baby loss. More parents than ever, including fathers and partners, accessed maternal mental health or specialist community perinatal mental health services in the year to April 2025.