The National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP), which has the support of the Department of Health, has been developed to improve the quality of bereavement care experienced by parents and families at all stages of pregnancy and baby loss up to 12 months.
We’re proud to be part of the Core Group of charities and professional bodies leading the NBCP, which also includes:
- Sands (Stillbirth and neonatal death charity)
- Bliss
- The Miscarriage Association
- ARC (Antenatal Results & Choices)
- Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
- Royal College of Midwives
- Royal College of Nursing
- Neonatal Nurses Association
- Institute of Health Visiting
- NHS England
- Representative of the UK health research community
Today, the Core Group announced 11 sites in England who will trial the use of new materials, guidelines and training for professionals to help improve the care bereaved parents receive.
The 11 pilot sites will work with the project team to understand the impact and the effectiveness of the pathway on improving bereavement care for parents. The sites have been chosen as they are representative of geography, capacity and specialism and will begin to pilot the pathway from October.
The bereavement care received by parents varies hugely regionally. All bereaved parents should be offered the same high standard of parent-centred, empathic and safe care when a baby dies.
The quality of care that bereaved families receive when their baby dies can have long-lasting effects. Good care cannot remove parents’ pain and grief, but it can help parents through this devastating time. Poor care can and does make things much worse.
The 11 sites are:
- Wirral University Teaching Hospital
- Liverpool Women’s Hospital Trust
- York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust
- Hull & East Yorkshire NHS Trust
- Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust
- Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
- Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust (Barnstaple Hospital)
- Medway (Maritime) NHS Foundation Trust
- West Middlesex, Chelsea & Westminster
- Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Trust – Queens Hospital, Romford
- Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust
A second wave of pilot sites is planned for April of 2018, ahead of a wider national roll out in October 2018. An announcement regarding these sites will be made early in 2018.
For further information, please visit the Sands website here.