Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled Suicide prevention in England: 5-year cross-sector strategy, published on 11 September 2023, what steps his Department is taking to help provide postvention local support services.

We are committed to delivering the Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, which aims to reduce suicide rates and address the risk factors contributing to suicide, as well as improving support for those who have self-harmed or are bereaved by suicide.

We are continuing to work towards the ambition and vision for improving bereavement support over the next five years, as set out in the strategy.

NHS England commissioned the Support After Suicide Partnership to help local health systems to develop suicide bereavement and postvention support services, and which continues to offer support to local areas to embed suicide bereavement services in line with their core standards, which are available at the following link:

https://hub.supportaftersuicide.org.uk/resource/summary-of-core-standards/

A detailed description of the work involved can be found on their website, at the following link:

https://hub.supportaftersuicide.org.uk/standards-intro/