E-petition debate: Children and bereavement

There will be a Westminster Hall debate on 2 December 2024 on two e-petitions relating to child bereavement. The petitions are calling for content on bereavement to be added to the national curriculum, and for the number of bereaved children to be recorded.

Child bereavement records

There are no official statistics on the number of bereaved children in the UK.

The Childhood Bereavement Network (CBN) has produced estimated statistics by analysing mortality statistics, census data and other sources. Using averages between 2019-2021, the CBN estimates that around 26,900 parents die each year, leaving behind 46,300 dependent children per year.

Bereavement on the national curriculum

Relationships and sex education has been a statutory requirement in all schools in England since September 2020.

A consultation on revised guidance on relationships, sex and health education was open from May to July 2024. The draft guidance would provide a strengthened role for teaching about bereavement and death. The government has not yet responded to this consultation.

Personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) is a non-statutory subject, but the government expects all schools to make provision for it. There is no national programme of study, and schools are expected to design a PSHE programme for their pupils. This could include teaching about bereavement.

Teaching about bereavement is not a direct curriculum requirement in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland, but recent years have seen calls for its greater inclusion in curricula across the UK, such as by the National Childhood Bereavement Project in Scotland, the report of the UK Commission on Bereavement in Wales (PDF), and Marie Curie’s Schools Bereavement Programme in Northern Ireland.

Services for bereaved children and families

The National Bereavement Alliance worked alongside a range of stakeholders to produce its Bereavement Support Services Standards for service providers in September 2024.

The gov.uk website has a step-by-step guide advising what to do when someone dies. The guide can also be accessed in Welsh, and the Scottish Government website has a similar webpage with links to support services. In Northern Ireland, Bereaved NI has a webpage which links to services that provide support to bereaved children and young people.

People who are raising a child whose parents have died may be eligible to claim the Guardian’s Allowance. This is a tax-free allowance of £21.75 per week which is offered on top of Child Benefit.

Children’s mental health support England

From December 2017 to March 2018 the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department for Education (DfE) ran a consultation regarding a green paper on children and young people’s mental health.

In May 2024, updated transparency data was published about the delivery of the commitments made by the green paper. It stated that 44% of school pupils and learners in further education in England were covered by Mental Health Support Teams in 2023-24, and projected that this would increase to 52% by March 2025 (p7).

In January 2024, the Labour party announced that it would carry out a Child Health Action Plan for “the healthiest generation of children ever”. Their manifesto for the July 2024 general election stated that they would recruit 8,500 new staff to treat adult and children’s mental health and that they would establish Young Futures hubs to broaden access to mental health support.

The government confirmed its commitment to recruit 8,500 new mental health workers in November 2024.

Scotland

In its Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027, the Scottish Government committed to:

1. Review Personal and Social Education (PSE), the role of pastoral guidance in local authority schools, and services for counselling for children and young people.
2. Roll out improved mental health training for those who support young people in educational settings […]
3. Ensure the care pathway includes mental and emotional health and wellbeing, for young people on the edges of, and in, secure care […]
4. Support an increase in support for the mental health needs of young offenders, including on issues such as trauma and bereavement. (p4)

In November 2022 the Scottish Government announced that counselling support had been set up for secondary schools across Scotland, and that it was providing £16 million of funding to local authority partners to support this.

Wales

Section 92 of the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013 made it a statutory requirement for local authorities to provide all students in their last year of primary school and throughout secondary school with an independent counselling service.

The Welsh Government published a framework in 2021 requiring schools to implement a whole-school approach to emotional and mental wellbeing.

The Welsh Government has concluded a consultation on the draft Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Wales 2024-34, which is intended to replace the previous 10-year strategy Together for mental health. The draft strategy sets out an action to “Provide services which are trauma-informed and direct people to the appropriate level of intervention” (p43) with the aim that all services providing mental health support should understand and work within the Trauma-Informed Wales Framework.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland’s Mental Health Strategy 2021-2031 includes specific actions relating to children and young people’s mental health. It was informed by the Youth Wellbeing Prevalence Survey 2020, which was commissioned by the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Board and published in October 2020. Amongst other factors, one reason that the survey gave for “increased levels of depression and anxiety disorders” was “exposure to family trauma and adversity”.

In September 2024, the Independent Counselling Service for Schools (ICSS), a Department for Education-funded counselling service for schools in Northern Ireland, was rebranded as the Holistic Options for Promoting Resilience Independent School Counselling and Therapy Service (HOPE Service). As part of this change, as of September 2024 the HOPE Service provides group sessions for all post primary settings. The HOPE operational handbook (PDF) states that:

Schools have been allocated one-hour face-to-face group counselling/therapy sessions for 2-6 pupils to address common presenting issues such as anxiety, bereavement, exam stress etc. Each school has been allocated 18 group sessions per year. (p22)

Children’s social care

Under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, local authorities in England are under a duty “to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need… by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs.” Authorities are also required to promote the upbringing of children by their families, so far as this is consistent with the duty to safeguard their welfare.

Local authorities are responsible for determining what services to provide for a child in need. When deciding what services to provide, authorities must consider the child’s wishes and feelings, whilst regarding their age and understanding, so far as this is can be put into practice and is consistent with the child’s welfare.