Evaluating the care received by bereaved parents in Scotland
The National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) Scotland aims to ensure all bereaved women, partners and families in Scotland receive compassionate, person-centred bereavement care.
Having completed the evaluation of the NBCP in England, Fiveways were commissioned to evaluate the pilot in Scotland involving nine health boards. The evaluation took place over several years and concluded in 2024.
The NBCP Scotland project is funded by Scottish Government and delivered in partnership with Sands – the stillbirth and neonatal death charity.
“Working with Fiveways has been a very positive experience, Richard was very flexible and generous with his time and managed new requests and numerous questions with kindness. His guidance has really helped us to understand the evaluation results and feedback. Richard also demonstrated a good understanding of what was required to speak with parents who have experienced loss. Sands would recommend Fiveways to any other organisation looking to evaluate projects that work with those who have experienced trauma.”
Our evaluation included
- Baseline and follow up surveys amongst health professionals in the participating boards
- In-depth interviews with health professionals who had used the NBCP
- An online survey amongst bereaved parents who would have experienced bereavement care when the NBCP was established within the participating boards
- In-depth interviews with bereaved parents recruited from the survey
- Throughout the evaluation an advisory panel of professionals and parents guided our approach to ensure the research was delivered sensitively at all times
Our evaluation revealed
- 84% of parents agreed the hospital was a caring and supportive environment
- 86% agreed they were treated with respect
- 84% agreed that the decisions they made were the right ones at the time
The evaluation also highlighted the aspects of bereavement care considered most important to parents. These included:
- being cared for by staff that acknowledge the baby and the loss
- providing dedicated, comforting areas for giving birth or being cared for during loss
- being able to spend time with their baby
- having the information, opportunity to discuss, and time to make their own informed decisions.