General debate on government support for bereaved children

Background

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 in the UK, leaving behind 46,300 dependent children under 18 per year.

Services for bereaved children and families

The National Bereavement Alliance worked alongside a range of stakeholders to produce its Bereavement Support Services Standards in September 2024. The standards aim to provide guidance to the providers of bereavement services and are based on the five principles of person-centred support, safety, collaboration, quality and sustainability. Under the principle of person-centred support, they state that a bereavement service should be:

planned in response to bereavement support needs that have been identified in the community it serves. This community might be a specific group of bereaved people for example, defined by age or relationship to the person who died/is dying, the cause of death, or bereaved people in a particular geography or from a particular culture.

The gov.uk website has a step-by-step guide advising what to do when someone dies. The guide contains a webpage on bereavement help and support, which links to organisations that provide information about understanding and managing grief, including the NHS and third party support service providers, and links to online support services. It also links to local support services through the Find bereavement services in your council portal.

The guide can also be accessed in Welsh, and the Scottish Government website has a similar webpage with links to support services. NHS Scotland has also produced a bereavement page with advice on child bereavement.

In Northern Ireland, Bereaved NI has a webpage which links to services that provide support to bereaved children and young people. The Bereaved NI support website was launched in March 2024.

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 £22.10 per week which is offered on top of Child Benefit.

In February 2026, the charity Child Bereavement UK published a report titled Supporting family involvement with the Child Death Review Process that called for improved communication and support to bereaved families through the standardisation of roles and training for keyworkers assigned to families.

Children’s mental health support

The Child Bereavement UK webpage on support for adults bereaved as children highlights that people who are bereaved as children can face long-term impacts such as depression, substance misuse, lower self-esteem and lower academic performance.

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. The government published its response to the consultation in July 2018 with a commitment to use “trailblazer areas” to trial three core proposals of the green paper:

1. To incentivise and support all schools and colleges to identify and train a Designated Senior Lead for Mental Health with a new offer of training to help leads and staff to deliver whole school approaches to promoting better mental health.
2. To fund new Mental Health Support Teams, including supervision by NHS children and young people’s mental health staff, to provide specific extra capacity for early intervention and ongoing help.
3. As we roll-out the new Mental Health Support Teams, we will trial a four week waiting time for access to specialist NHS children and young people’s mental health services. This builds on the expansion of specialist NHS services already underway.

The Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Implementation Programme was a joint programme between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Department for Education (DfE) and NHS England (NHSE) to implement the core proposals above. The programme formally closed on 31 March 2025 with work continuing on the implementation through the government’s Plan for Change and the 10 Year Health Plan.

In May 2025, updated transparency data was published about the delivery of the commitments made by the green paper. It stated that 52% of school pupils and learners in further education in England were covered by Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in 2024-25, and projected that this would increase to 62% by 31 March 2026. The 10 Year Health Plan, published in July 2025 states that the roll-out of MHSTs is intended to reach full coverage by 2029-30. In July 2025 the National Children’s Bureau published an evaluation of the MHST programme. Whilst there was high satisfaction with the MHSTs across schools, the evaluation found MHSTs were less effective for children under seven, those who have experienced trauma, and those who are neurodiverse or have SEND needs. Recruitment and high staff turnover has been a consistent issue since initial implementation.

The 10 Year Health Plan stated that there will be new Young Futures Hubs, alongside a wellbeing offer, to expand provision of mental health support. In July 2025, the government announced that 50 young future hubs would be launched in total. £2 million has been given to eight local authorities to set up ‘early adopter’ young future hubs with the support of the National Youth Agency and third sector organisations such as Centre for Young Lives.

Additionally, the health plan reiterated the Labour party manifesto commitment that 8,500 mental health staff will be recruited to reducing waiting times for child and adult mental health services (pdf). As of June 2025, the government said 6,700 mental health staff have been recruited. The charity Full Fact has reported that what roles this is measured across is unclear.

Children’s services

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.”

Section 17 defines a child in need as a child who:

(a) [is] unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision…of services by a local authority…;

(b) [whose] development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision of such services; or

(c) [is] disabled.

Local authorities are responsible for determining what services to provide for a child in need.

The 1989 act specifies the range of services that can be made available for a child in need in addition to the services that local authorities provide for all children (such as family centres and recreational activities). These include, among other things, advice, guidance and counselling.

Local authorities may also provide non-statutory targeted early help services to children who do not meet the threshold for support as a child in need.

A number of reforms to children’s social care practice are being taken forward through the Families First Partnership Programme, which is backed by £2.4 billion up to 2028/29. The reforms include more closely aligning targeted early help and support for children in need to create a “seamless” system of family help that “promotes early intervention”. The government’s guidance on the Families First Partnership Programme provides more information. Among other things, this states that a child being bereaved may be an indicator that family help services could be required (pp16-17).

Parliamentary material Parliamentary debates

Children and Bereavement

2 December 2024 | Westminster Hall

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

9 June 2025 | Lords Chamber

Mental Health Support: Educational Settings

13 March 2025 | Commons Chamber

Covid-19: Day of Reflection

20 March 2025 | Lords Chamber

Parliamentary questions

Mental Health Services: Children

11 December 2025 | UIN 99219

Asked by: Jim McMahon

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of possible generational links to suicide; and what support is available to children of people who have taken their own lives.

Answering member: Dr Zubir Ahmed | Department: Department for Health and Social Care

The Government has not made an assessment of possible generational links to suicide. The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published in 2023, identifies eight priority groups, including children and young people, for targeted and tailored support at a national level. Another key priority area is to improve support for people bereaved by suicide.

The purpose of the Suicide Prevention Strategy is to set out our aims to prevent suicide through action by working across Government and other organisations. One of the key visions of the strategy is to reduce the stigma surrounding suicide and mental health, so people feel able to seek help through the routes that work best for them. This includes raising awareness that no suicide is inevitable.

The Government is expanding access to mental health support teams in all schools and colleges to reach all pupils by 2029, ensuring that every pupil has access to early support services. This expansion will ensure that up to 900,000 more children and young people will have access to support from trained education mental health practitioners in 2025/26.

Children: Bereavement Counselling

17 November 2025 | UIN 91587

Asked by: Bell Riberio-Addy

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has considered the potential merits of implementing the measures set out by The Joanna Simpson Foundation and Children Heard and Seen on support for children bereaved by domestic homicide.

Answering member: Josh MacAlister | Department: Department for Education

This government recognises the dreadful impact of all domestic abuse-related deaths on children and families. This is why the Home Office funds Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse to support those bereaved by deaths in this way.

Every child deserves the right mental health support, particularly in times of grief, which is why we updated the statutory relationships and health education curriculum to give teachers clear guidance on how to best support pupils with bereavement. We are also expanding access to mental health support teams in all schools, ensuring that every pupil has access to early support services in their community.

Pupils: Bereavement Counselling

7 April 2025 | UIN 44539

Asked by: Stuart Anderson

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help schools support pupils experiencing childhood bereavement.

Answering member: Stephen Morgan | Department: Department for Education

It is vital that when a child suffers a bereavement, they are aware of and able to access the support they need. Schools know their pupils best and do an excellent job in supporting them through a range of adverse life experiences, including bereavement. The department is always looking for ways to better support schools in this role.

The relationships, sex and health (RSHE) statutory guidance states that teachers should be aware of common ‘adverse childhood experiences’, including bereavement. The full guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education(opens in a new tab).

The department is reviewing the RSHE curriculum and following analysis of consultation responses and further discussion with stakeholders, we will decide on any new content on bereavement.

The government is also committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people, including those who have experienced a bereavement. To achieve this, we have committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. The department also provides a resource hub for school and college mental health leads, signposting practical tools to embed effective mental health and wellbeing practice. The hub includes resources for schools to support bereaved children.

The department has also published guidance to support pupils whose ability to attend exams has been affected by bereavement, including examples of effective practice. In addition, we have recently made updates to GOV.UK adding links to bereavement support specifically for children and their families. This support is available at: https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/bereavement-help-and-support?step-by-step-nav=4f1fe77d-f43b-4581-baf9-e2600e2a2b7a(opens in a new tab).

Infant Mortality: Bereavement Counselling

10 October 2025 | UIN 80586

Asked by: Jayne Kirkham

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that (a) fathers, (b) families from minority (i) ethnic and (ii) faith backgrounds and (c) other bereaved parents receive (A) timely, (B) equitable and (C) culturally competent support following the loss of a baby.

Answering member: Karin Symth | Department: Department for Health and Social Care

Following the loss of a baby, all parents should receive timely, equitable, and culturally competent care. To support this, NHS England has provided funding to all integrated care boards (ICBs) to establish seven-day-a-week bereavement services across maternity settings in England, so that support is always available when families need it most. Currently, 38 out of 42 ICBs offer a seven day a week bereavement service.

Bereavement care and cultural competence are both included within the Core Competency Framework which sets out the essential training for staff to help to address variations in the quality of support provided. Over 15,400 maternity staff have completed the e-learning module on cultural competency to date.

In addition, the leaders of all 150 maternity and neonatal units in England have now participated in the Perinatal Culture and Leadership programme. Recognising that more is needed to ensure families from minority ethnic and faith backgrounds receive the appropriate care, NHS England is rolling out a perinatal equity anti-discrimination programme to equip staff with the skills to provide the best possible care.

Press material

Department of Health and Social Care, Certificates recognising heartbreak of losing a baby extended, 9 October 2024

Department for Work and Pensions, Support for bereaved families to be extended, 24 January 2023

Further reading

Child Bereavement UK, Supporting family involvement with the Child Death Review Process, 11 February 2026

UK Commission on Bereavement, Bereavement is everyone's business, 2022