We have now received our letter from the Department of Health Minister, Rt Hon Norman Lamb, following our letter being forwarded by the PM. 

It is good that we are getting our charity name and issues out there to the people that can make changes and decisions but it would be even nicer if we were getting the answers we need. And unlike the letter we received from the PM at least this letter was addressed using our correct names.


Dear Mr & Mrs Curtis and Mr & Mrs Key,

Thank you for your recent letter to David Cameron about bereavement counselling. As your correspondence relates to healthcare, it has been passed to the Department of Health.

Firstly, may I say how very sorry I was to read of the death of your grandson, Charlie Arthur Curtis. Please accept my sincere condolences.

The Department of Health has funded a number of bereavement services through the Voluntary Sector Investment Programme. For example, in 2012, it awarded a grant of £304,105 to the Child Bereavement Charity for the Improving Child Bereavement Support Project. The project aims to improve access to child and family bereavement services at a local level, support local authorities, social services and health services to establish and deliver effective child bereavement services, and to provide child bereavement support to families following a death of a child or a parent or carer.

However, it is the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and local authorities to commission services based on their local populations needs and to ensure that the services they secure for local people provide the best value for money and real quality for patients.

I would therefore suggest that you continue to discuss this matter with your local CCG.

I hope this reply is helpful.

Norman Lamb

I have already penned a reply.

Dear Mr Norman Lamb,
Thank you for your reply to our letter forwarded to you from the PM’s office.

It is good to hear that there has been funding granted for the Child Bereavement Charity over recent years and that they have been able to provide a valuable service.
However there is still a gap in the bereavement services offered to families following a loss. 

We have been in talks with our local CCG and have attended meetings and governing body community meetings. At our last formal meeting we were assured that there would be a review of the services within Leeds leading on to a change of provisions if required. They informed us that the review would take a year to complete. 
We have tried to find out whether the review is taking place and how it is going but currently our requests for information have not been answered.
I understand that it should be our local authority that commissions services based on local need but this does not seem to be happening in the Leeds area. From the Freedom of Information report generated from a request by our local radio station it was highlighted that bereavement counselling was severely lacking, with 32,000 people waiting for counselling in Leeds alone.
We would welcome your assistance with our request for information from our local CCG.
Our aim is to improve the provision and availability of bereavement support initially in Leeds but ultimately UK wide and we are more than willing to work with the CCG and the Department of Health to make the changes happen. 
Any service provided should be needs led and the best way to find out what is needed is to listen to the people who require help. 
We have had contact through our social media and website from many families across the UK saying that there is a general lack of bereavement services. Surely this cannot be right and will ultimately lead to more people requiring more intense and expensive intervention. 
If the appropriate support was available from the onset of need then we would not be in the position of trying to campaign for improvements. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely Ruth Curtis (Mrs)

Lets see what response this letter brings, hopefully it might start a conversation between the Department of Health and our local CCG.