Charity Focus: Sands - Improving Care for Bereaved Families

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Who are Sands?

Established over 40 years ago by bereaved parents, Sands (originally an acronym for the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society but now simply referred to as Sands) is a non-profit organisation devoted to improving the care and support for anyone affected by the loss of a baby, and ultimately decreasing the number of those who experience it.

According to their website, 13 families a day are affected by the heartbreak of losing a baby, whether that be before, during, or after birth, and at least 15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Sands recognises that child-loss does not follow a linear process, and as such aims to make the bereavement journey more manageable for the wider network of family, friends, and healthcare professionals involved, by establishing national bereavement care pathways. In short, ‘to ensure that every bereaved parent and family receives the best possible care wherever they are in the UK’.

Sands achieves these ventures by working in partnership with healthcare professionals, health trusts, and boards, and offers a variety of training programmes and bereavement care resources to prepare healthcare staff for the loss of a baby. They also promote crucial research to increase understanding and knowledge regarding the causes of infant loss and avenues for improving the safety of both mothers and babies. Further to this, they raise awareness of such issues and collaborate with governments and other stakeholders to elevate them to the priorities that they should be.

The 9 Bereavement Care Standards

Sands launched the 9 Bereavement Care Standards as part of the National Bereavement Care Pathway during Baby Loss Awareness Week in 2018. Produced as a result of stories and testimonials told by parents affected by pregnancy loss or the death of a baby, these standards are comprised of 9 different protocols and expectations, and provide a concise and comprehensive guide for how each NHS trust should support a parent or family during and after the loss of an infant.

Several of these are designed to be implemented into the infrastructure and running of the NHS trust in question: no. 5 designates that ‘Bereavement rooms are available and accessible in all hospitals’, so that grieving parents can begin to process their experience and emotions in privacy, peace, and quietude; no. 8 advises that a ‘system is in place to clearly signal to all health care professionals and staff that a parent has experienced a bereavement’ in order to prevent the harmful elongation and disruption of their grief, and repetition of ‘having to tell their story again and again’; no. 2 suggests that ‘training is offered to staff who come into contact with bereaved parents’, a provision which Sands can resource; and no. 4 employs the role of a ‘bereavement lead in every healthcare setting where a pregnancy or baby loss may occur’.

Further to this, some of the standards cover protocols to be enacted immediately following the tragic loss of an infant. No. 6 makes this moment as sensitive and personalised to the parents as possible, by making sure that the ‘preferences of all bereaved families are sought’, particularly regarding ‘decisions relating to their care and the care of their babies’. Depending on the wishes of the families, this may result in the inclusion of no. 3, which ensures ‘emotional support [and] specialist mental health support’ if requested, and/or no. 7, in which the bereaved parents are ‘offered opportunities to make memories’. The latter refers to the reversal of an antiquated practice whereby, in the 1970s when Sands originated, deceased babies would be removed from the room immediately before their parents could see them; however, many studies have highlighted the importance of the mother spending time with the baby, and to form physical and emotional bonds as they would with a living infant. Thus, ‘making memories’ allows parents and families to retain sentimental items such as a teddy bear, a cast of the child’s feet or hands, and anything else that will allow them to keep a part of what they have lost.

And several others are to be established before the loss of an infant occurs – not to promote fearmongering for prospective parents, or attempt to mitigate the shock caused by such a traumatic event, but to make sure everyone involved is at least somewhat prepared so that those affected enter the most comfortable environment and setting without the further disorientation of a buffer or delay. This includes the very first of the nine Standards, which promotes the preparation of a ‘parent-led bereavement care plan’ so that all of the appropriate resources are readily available, and, to further this, no. 9, which instructs healthcare professionals to be equipped with enough ‘support and resources to deliver high quality bereavement care’.

How Cambridge MC is Supporting Sands

It is this final standard, no. 9, which Cambridge Management Consulting is striving to support in collaboration with Sands.

Since beginning this journey in 1978, Sands has taken advantage of technological advancements and their benefits to make such research and work both more sophisticated and, more importantly, more accessible. As well as a UK-wide network of around 100 support groups, Sands disseminate their support and resources through a Freephone helpline and online community. Now, as a technology-forward consultancy, with a collective wealth of technical expertise, Cambridge MC is aiming to bring this same accessibility and visibility specifically to the 9 Bereavement Care Standards.

Considering how important, and often urgent, the Bereavement Care Standards are to improving the wellbeing of bereaved families, healthcare professionals previously reported struggling to find them readily available, thus stunting their ability to provide the proper care imminently and effectively. Thus, Cambridge MC’s marketing and IT experts have, pro bono, produced a new landing page specifically for the National Bereavement Care Pathway and the 9 Standards, to make their implementation in UK-wide hospitals as easy and seamless as possible.

Karl Salter, Head of Marketing for Cambridge MC and project lead for the website, said: ‘Sands is an incredible cause, bringing light to such an important issue and vastly improving the wellbeing of those affected by it. It is an honour, and very moving, to be able to bring further awareness to this work.’

Marc Harder, Head of Bereavement Care & Hospital Liaison at Sands, said: ‘Healthcare professionals across the UK find themselves in a challenging environment at the best of times, and caring for newly bereaved parents requires a specialised set of people skills. The resources Sands and its partners provide are crucial to equipping the workforce to care for parents when they need it most, and we are so grateful to Cambridge MC in supporting this aim by creating the new NBCP website pages which will make accessing tools and resources so much easier.’

To learn more about Sands and their incredible work, particularly if you have been affected by any of the sentiments outlined in this article, click here.

To visit the new landing page for Sands' National Bereavement Care Pathway, click here.

About Cambridge Management Consulting

Cambridge Management Consulting (Cambridge MC) is an international consulting firm that helps companies of all sizes have a better impact on the world. Founded in Cambridge, UK, initially to help the start-up community, Cambridge MC has grown to over 150 consultants working on projects in 20 countries.

Our capabilities focus on supporting the private and public sector with their people, process and digital technology challenges.

For more information visit www.cambridgemc.com or get in touch below.