The NHS has announced that the Sands National Bereavement Care Pathways (NBCP) are included in its plans to improve maternity and neonatal services in England.
This is a major success for Sands, our supporters and campaigners, and key partners - all striving to ensure that bereaved parents and families receive high-quality and personalised care following the loss of a baby.
It means that immediate actions are being taken by the NHS to improve care and ensure women and partners are listened to following a stillbirth or neonatal death.
By embedding bereavement care standards into routine practice, NHS services can significantly improve outcomes, reduce trauma, and build public trust in maternity and neonatal care.
What is the NBCP?
As a best practice resource for improving the quality of maternity services, the NBCP has been developed to ensure that all bereaved parents and families receive consistently high-quality, compassionate, and personalised care following the loss of a baby.
“Having the bereavement care standards and the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death National Bereavement Care Pathways embedded in NHS England guidance is a major milestone in ensuring everyone touched by pregnancy or baby loss gets the high quality and accessible bereavement care they need.
“This success is down to the fact that Sands and our NBCP partners have led the way in improving high-quality bereavement care across the UK.
“Sands will continue to lead and drive improvements in bereavement care with the NHS and our partners to help embed the NBCP and make sure it is effective and makes a difference to all bereaved parents.”
- Sands' Chief Executive Clea Harmer.
What difference will this make to parents and families?
Healthcare professionals will have practical guidance on things like bereavement rooms, memory-making opportunities, and timely emotional and psychological care to support them to provide improved bereavement care.
The NBCP includes a list of standards that address both the emotional needs of families and the professional requirements of staff, ensuring that care is not only personalised but also consistent across settings.
How will this help to improve care?
By combining practical guidance for professionals delivering bereavement care to parents and families with standards of care, culture and behaviour, the NBCP ensures that every family receives personalised, compassionate support, whether through access to bereavement rooms, memory-making opportunities, or referral to timely emotional and psychological care.
The organisations that are responsible for planning and funding health services locally (known as Integrated Care Boards), are taking immediate action to implement the NBCP’s principles and processes, transforming bereavement care and ensuring parents are listened to.
“The voice and experiences of bereaved families has been vital in recognising the importance and value of high quality bereavement care and the lasting impact this can have. Real experiences are at the heart of the NBCP and we are thankful to those who have bravely shared their experiences to impact positive change. Your experiences and insights will now shape the bereavement care of the future.”
- Dr Rebecca Ashley, National Bereavement Care Pathway Manager (England), Sands.
What about the other UK nations?
The Scottish Government has made the NBCP mandatory for all 14 health boards in Scotland.
Sands is introducing a National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) in Northern Ireland made possible by funding from Public Health Agency, to integrate the NBCP across the Health and Social Care system in Northern Ireland.
And Sands is supporting the Welsh Government to create tailored bereavement care pathways for those who have experienced pregnancy or baby loss in Wales, made possible thanks to funding from the Welsh Government.
Sands here to support
Sands is here to support anyone affected by pregnancy loss or the death of a baby, however recently or longer ago, wherever they are in the UK for as long as they need this.