Support for bereaved children

A Westminster Hall debate has been scheduled for Tuesday 28 March on support for bereaved children. The debate will be opened by Christine Jardine MP.

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

The Childhood Bereavement Network estimates that 26,900 parents die each year in the UK, leaving approximately 46,300 dependent children aged 0-17. These figures are based on sources such as the census and mortality statistics, in the absence of other data, so they only provide a rough estimate.

There have been calls for a mechanism for collecting data on the number of children who are bereaved and identifying children who may need support.

There have also been calls for schools to have bereavement policies in place and for the Department for Education to produce a national bereavement policy.

The UK Bereavement Commission has called for all education settings to provide age-appropriate learning opportunities about “coping with death and bereavement as a part of life”.

The Childhood Bereavement Network have produced a briefing ahead of the debate on how data on bereaved children could be improved.

This debate pack provides information on the Government’s green paper on children and young people’s mental health, relevant commitments in the NHS Long term plan and parliamentary material.