As chair of the cross-party groups on hospices and palliative care and on funerals and bereavement in both this and the last Senedd, I've worked with our group member, Rhian Mannings, who submitted this petition and who founded the all-Wales charity 2 Wish Upon a Star, providing essential bereavement support for families who have suddenly or traumatically lost a child or young adult under 25, which may be from suicide or may be through accident or illness. 

She told me that sudden death is the forgotten death in Wales and that, although the charity has effectively become a statutory service in Wales, working with every health board and every police force, they receive no statutory support and have to raise every penny themselves, despite reducing pressure on mental health teams by helping to tackle the unforeseeable trauma of unpredictable death and loss.

She started her fight, as we've heard, after her husband and son were taken from her suddenly. No preparation, she said, no warning, and then nothing, and states that the lack of support they received led directly to her husband taking his own life. Indeed, her determination to provide the support she would have wanted to receive after the death of her son and husband is why we are debating this most critical of issues today.

There is currently no official bereavement support for families in Wales. It’s all provided by organisations like 2 Wish Upon A Star or hospices like Tŷ Gobaith children’s hospice near Conwy, where services include their snowflake room—a special, temperature-controlled room where families and friends can spend time saying goodbye, in their time and in their own way, to children who have died.

The cross-party groups welcome the draft national framework for the delivery of bereavement care, published last week. Group members contributed significantly to its development, and our work programmes include focus on many of the topics contained within the framework. The framework’s ambition to ensure that people in Wales have timely access to quality bereavement care and support touches at the very heart of today’s debate. No family should be left alone and isolated after the loss of a child.

In cross-party group meetings, we’ve also discussed instances of lack of understanding by public sector bodies of the specific bereavement needs of black and minority ethnic families in Wales. Indeed, the cross-party group on hospices and palliative care and Compassionate Cymru inquiry recommended tailored services to meet the specific needs of racialised communities, involving people from diverse communities to co-produce services.

Today’s petition rightly calls for the Welsh Government to support a service here in Wales to ensure that families who unexpectedly lose their child or young adult, aged 25 years and under, get the support they require. Let us heed the senior North Wales Police detective who told me, 'The services that 2 Wish Upon A Star provided the families across Wales who have suffered such a tragic event is very much needed and something that has been evidently lacking in north Wales from my own professional experience. North Wales Police has definitely seen the benefit of the services 2 Wish Upon A Star provide, not only in providing the families with a suitable environment within a hospital setting to discuss the circumstances with the professionals involved, but also somewhere where they can begin to come to terms with their loss. Furthermore', they said, '2 Wish Upon A Star provides essential ongoing professional support mechanisms for the family network thereafter.' And in addition to supporting families, 2 Wish Upon A Star has supported training to North Wales Police officers, which has had a significant impact on how they deal with the death of any child. 'Their involvement has undoubtedly assisted us', they said, 'in professionalising our approach.'

I’ll leave the last word to a senior North Wales Police staff member, who e-mailed, 'I was aware of 2 Wish Upon A Star from discussions in the workplace with colleagues. Unfortunately, I subsequently found myself in the position whereby I witnessed at first hand the benefit that 2 Wish Upon A Star can bring to those who suffer the incomparable devastation that only the loss of a child can bring. In my case, it was the death of my eight-week old nephew. I can confidently say that the benefit to his parents from 2 Wish Upon A Star has been immeasurable and continuing.' 'Without the help of schemes like this', he said, 'the darkness that can surround those suddenly and traumatically bereaved will be so much harder to navigate. I urge you', he said, 'to give this debate your fullest support.' Diolch.