Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that all parents with a child admitted to a neonatal unit have access to psychological and bereavement support.

The NHS locally is expected to ensure that appropriate facilities and services are in place to support parents following the illness or death of a newborn baby. NHS England’s Neonatal Critical Care Service Specification states that “the service will deliver the aim to improve both life expectancy and quality of life for newborn babies by:

- Delivering care in a family-centred way that seeks to minimise the physical and psychological impact of neonatal care on the baby and their family, for example by improving psychological outcomes and breastfeeding rates

- Providing an environment where parents are enabled to make informed decisions about treatment and become involved in the care of their baby / babies, thereby minimising the psychological trauma of premature or sick term babies.”

The MBRRACE-UK report on the confidential enquiry into term antepartum stillbirths, published on 19 November 2015, found a good standard of bereavement care documented as being given to parents immediately following birth. However, several areas for improvement were identified including the finding that there was wide variation in the availability of a specialist bereavement midwife, with only one third of case notes showing evidence of their involvement.

Following that report, and following a debate in the House of Commons on 2 November, (Official Report, columns 844-852) the Department is looking at the number of bereavement suites around the country and will engage with the NHS to reaffirm the importance of putting into practice existing guidance on bereavement including through mandated accountability processes.

Health Education England is working with partners to ensure that pre and post registration training in perinatal mental health is available to enable specialist staff to be available to every birthing unit by 2017.