Self-assessment and Sands' consultancy offer
The self-assessment template attached below enables you to audit the quality of bereavement care in your Trust against the nine NBCP standards. The template can be adapted to need: some Bereavement Leads use one form to audit the whole Trust; others use one for each of the five pathways; others for each unit or team, depending how the hospital is configured.
Please note that the self-assessment template will be updated in spring 2025.
What shall we do with our completed self-assessment?
The self-assessment template is for you to adapt and use locally. Use the link below to download a copy.
You are welcome to submit the form to the Bereavement Care & Hospital Liaison team at Sands via bereavementcare@sands.org.uk, however we cannot guarantee that we will have the capacity to respond with a detailed response.
Sands' Consultancy offer
Sands offers a paid-for consultancy service whereby hospital trusts and boards are able to request an on-site 2 day audit visit by the Bereavement Care & Hospital Liaison team.
Taking a ‘critical friend’ rather than inspectorial approach, Bereavement Care experts from the Sands team will come to the site, and speak to front-line workers, local bereaved families and partner organisations to help assess current bereavement care standards. The team will then write up a formal report with findings and recommendations within 14 days.
If you would like to know more about the consultancy offer, and any associated additional training requests, please contact the team via email at bereavementcare@sands.org.uk
“Throughout the process the team were professional, supportive, and keen to ensure that the peer review was both meaningful and
representative of the service need… we were able to get an external, expert opinion on where the service was benchmarked and provided recommendations to ensure we could provide an outstanding bereavement service across early pregnancy, maternity
and within the main hospital….Being able to receive feedback directly from our services users following the women’s interviews was key to ensure we were hearing the seldom heard or hard to reach voice.”
Deputy Divisional Maternity & Nursing Director of a Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the North of England, autumn 2023
Contact Us
To submit your self-assessment or to find out more about Sands, the NBCP and our offer to hospitals, please contact us via the form.
Register Your NHS Trust to NBCP
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