The Scottish Government awarded includem the contract to deliver the National Childhood Bereavement Project in March 2020.

The Project ended with the publication and submission of the final report in September 2022.

The Story of the Project

The National Childhood Bereavement Project was created in March 2020 to honour the commitments made by Scottish Ministers to improve support for those who are bereaved during their childhood, as outlined in the Programme for Government 2016/17.

Over the course of two years, the Project worked to understand the experiences of infants, children, young people and young adults who have been bereaved under the age of 26 in Scotland.

In August 2021, the Project published an interim report summarising the learning gathered during the first year of the Project from March 2020 – March 2021. The report can be read here.

In total, the Project listened to 100 people with lived experience of childhood bereavement and over 250 people with a role in supporting bereaved children and young people, through their personal life as parents, carers or friends or through their work as charity workers or teachers.

In September 2022, the Project concluded by publishing its final report ‘Growing Up Grieving’ and submitting seven recommendations for change to the Scottish Government. You can read the report here.

Going Forward 

The Scottish Government have received the report and are now taking some time to reflect on the findings and recommendations and what they will mean for the future.

Although the Project has now ended, if you have any questions, you can email bereavement@includem.co.uk and we will do our best to get back to you.