North Wales MS and Chair of the Senedd Cross-Party Group on Funerals and Bereavement, Mark Isherwood, has called on the Welsh Government to provide an update on action to address the death to registration delays in Wales, which he said are causing “great family distress”.
Mr Isherwood raised the matter when responding to yesterday’s Statement by the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing: ‘Implementation of the National Framework for the Delivery of Bereavement Care’, which included ‘£3m into bereavement services across Wales over the next three years’.
He also questioned her over bereavement support, and warned that Hospices are likely to reduce the support they provide due to financial pressures.
Speaking in the Senedd Chamber, he said:
“A significant proportion of bereavement care is provided by our charitable Hospices in Wales, with services available before and after a loved-one's death, but you only listed some of these, and if I heard correctly, you excluded all of the adult Hospices in North Wales.
“However, with every Hospice in Wales forecasting a deficit for this financial year, and with 90 per cent stating that cost-of-living pressures are likely to reduce the support that they provide, how will you protect their vital bereavement care across Wales?”
He added:
“Great family distress is being caused by the death to registration delays created, as we heard, by the new Statutory Medical Examiner System. Will you therefore provide an update following the first engagement meeting between the Welsh Government, Funeral Directors and others understood to have been held very recently - the week before last - to discuss this?”
He also questioned the Minister over bereavement support for the deaf and those bereaved by suicide.
He said:
“Finally, members of the Cross-Party Group on Funerals and Bereavement have previously discussed the provision of bereavement support for the deaf and for those bereaved by suicide. How will the Framework address this, working, for example, with the All Wales Deaf Mental Health and Wellbeing Group, and suicide prevention charity Papyrus, which provides services for BSL users?”
In her response, the Minister referred to the death to registration delays, stating “I'm sure that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care will write to you as soon as possible with an update”, and, with regards to bereavement support, said: “It is £3 million for 18 organisations all across Wales”.