FOI2026/1951

Please provide the following recorded information held by NHS Greater Manchester covering 1 January 2021 to the date of this request:

1  Copies of any follow-up evaluations, surveys, audits, reviews or reports

   undertaken after the immediate post-training evaluations to assess

   whether the participants subsequently applied the training in practice.

2  Copies of any recorded information assessing whether the training

   resulted in changes to:

1.  a)  professional practice
2.  b)  organisational policies or procedures
3.  c)  referral or support pathways
4.  d)  service delivery
5.  e)  support received by people affected by suicide or suicide

        bereavement.

3  The Luna Foundation reports state that a number of organisations

   reviewed referral pathways and procedures following the projects.

   Please provide:

1.  a)  any recorded information identifying those organisations
2.  b)  copies of any resulting pathway, procedure, policy, review, action

        plan or confirmation of change held by NHS Greater Manchester.

4  Please provide any monitoring, follow-up correspondence, survey

   results or reports showing how many education or early-years settings

   subsequently adopted or revised a suicide bereavement policy following

   the Lunar Foundation training and webinar.

5  Please provide copies of any recorded consideration, decision or action

   taken by NHS Greater Manchester in response to recommendations

   contained in the disclosed reports, including recommendations

   concerning:

1.  i)    continued or expanded training
2.  ii)   refresher or follow-up training

   iii)  monitoring adoption of suicide-bereavement policies

1.  iv)  training for early-years and SEND professionals
2.  v)   collection of data on children or young people bereaved by parental

         or caregiver suicide

6  Copies of any reports, papers, presentations or minutes submitted to the

   Greater Manchester Suicide Prevention Programme Steering Group, its

   Chair, locality Suicide Prevention Leads or another governance body

   concerning implementation of, or progress against, those

   recommendations.

7  Copies of any recorded assessment by Greater Manchester of whether

   the commissioned programmes represented value for money beyond

   attendance levels and immediate participant feedback.

8  Please provide the relevant contractual or commissioning provisions

   requiring the training providers to supply evaluations, impact reports,

   follow-up information or evidence of implementation.  Commercially

   sensitive pricing and proprietary training material may be redacted

   where necessary; I seek the non-exempt provisions concerning

   evaluation, outcomes, reporting and assurance.

Q1 Response: No follow-up evaluations, surveys, audits, reviews or reports were undertaken after the immediate post-training evaluations to assess whether the participants subsequently applied the training in practice, delivered by the GM Suicide Prevention Programme. But occasionally emails were received from attendees who shared that they had had the opportunity to put the training into practice.

Training places funded at a GM Level were offered to localities to fill. The different workforces in GM localities targeted for the training may have considered a follow up assessment, however the ICB doesn’t hold that detail, and a request would need to be made of individual training providers

Q2 Response: No assessments were conducted by the GM Suicide prevention Programme on whether training delivered resulted in changes to:

1.  a)  professional practice
2.  b)  organisational policies or procedures
3.  c)  referral or support pathways
4.  d)  service delivery
5.  e)  support received by people affected by suicide or suicide

        bereavement.

Though no GM assessments were conducted, occasionally emails were received from attendees who shared that they had had the opportunity to put the training into practice.

Training places funded at a GM Level were offered to localities to fill. The different workforces in GM localities targeted for the training may have considered follow up assessments to understand the changes listed, however GM ICB does not hold that information.

Q3 Response

1. The Luna Foundation impact report shared, names the education settings that attended the Suicide Bereavement Policy webinar that 60 professionals attended. Details are also provided on the number of attendees sharing that they were unaware of their organisation having a suicide bereavement policy in place at the time of attendance and the increased likelihood that they would return and propose changes to this.

No follow up was made by the NHS GM Suicide Prevention Programme with those specific schools to confirm if they had created a suicide bereavement policy or amended an existing one. GM Education Leads were asked to encourage all education establishments in GM to consider having one in place, although it should be noted that the establishment of such a policy is not enforceable.

1.  b)  NHS Greater Manchester do not have a record of any confirmation of change as it was and is still not in a position to know what individual educational establishments put in place in regard to referral pathways, procedures, policies, reviews or action for when they may have a student bereaved by suicide but the training offered provided ideas of what was considered beneficial for adoption and importantly, initiated the issue being discussed and considered.

Attendees on the training and webinar were made aware of the Greater Manchester Bereavement Service during the training delivered for support information they may require when supporting a person of any age who has experienced a bereavement by suicide.

Schools are responsible themselves for any referrals made to Education Psychology teams and others, for pupils who may need support after a bereavement by suicide.

Q4 Response No monitoring, follow-up correspondence, survey results or reports showing how many education or early-years settings subsequently adopted or revised a suicide bereavement policy following the Luna Foundation training and webinar were completed. It is not a compulsory requirement to have such a policy in place but one the ICB encouraged.

Q5 Response – In regard to NHS GM’s response to the recommendations made in the Luna Foundation Impact Report, the Luna Foundation unfortunately closed down, so NHS GM were not in a position to i) continue or expand the training focused on supporting children bereaved by suicide of a parent or care giver or ii) commission refresher or follow up training, as they were the only training provider providing this focused training.

As responded to in Q4, no iii) monitoring adoption of suicide-bereavement policies took place.

Training for Early Years (iv) was commissioned and training for SEND professionals would have been a consideration if Luna Foundation had not closed down.

In regard to the question of data collection on children or young people bereaved by parental or caregiver suicide (v), this is not a national requirement at this time but the question is now included in the Real Time Surveillance (RTS) Notification Form for suspected suicides that the ICB receive and often completed in the form received from two of our GM Coroner’s Offices. This does not provide a full picture of the number of children impacted, however the prevalence the ICB saw, did lead us to the setting up of Alfie’s Squad in Greater Manchester, to provide support for children and young people bereaved by suicide in our region and their remaining parent or care giver.

Q6 Response – Members of our Greater Manchester Suicide Prevention Steering Group were made aware of the training delivered by Luna Foundation before delivery and after completion and informed of the organisation’s closure.

They were also informed of the establishment of an Alfie’s Squad in the region, and it was publicised via social media too and a launch event was arranged.

The change to the RTS notification form was just shared with the relevant Public Health Leads who may receive those notifications.

Q7 Response – No assessments were completed following training on whether the commissioned training programmes represented value for money beyond attendance levels and immediate participant feedback, including emailed feedback in the weeks following the training. But value for money was considered when deciding upon a training provider in addition to the potential benefits of the training to be delivered.

Q8 Response: Depending on the cost of the training to be provided different processes took place.

There was a Service Contract in place with Luna Foundation, setting out that Luna Foundation would provide:

“Delivery: 10 x Luna Suicide Bereavement Training sessions delivered as three-hour online session. Training delivery includes research to incorporate local pathways to support for children and young people bereaved by suicide in Greater Manchester. Digital resource library focused on supporting children and young people after suicide bereavement, and provision of toolkit to promote to libraries, education settings, bereavement charities and suicide postvention services operating in the region. Workshop for education settings to introduce and support implementation of Luna’s Suicide Impact & Bereavement Policy. Production of 2 x localised Luna Suicide Bereavement guides including signposting to relevant local support (one for professionals and one for families), 16-page full colour A5 format, delivered in digital and print ready versions. Evaluation of work undertaken by November 2023.”

Luna Foundation kept to this agreement and provided an impact report. Implementation of the training and creation of resources was evident.

Other providers included mention of their planned evaluation/impact report in their tender bids and provided them on completion though Manchester MIND focused more on the attendance numbers.

We are confident that all the commissioned training was delivered as agreed but with more capacity, follow-up evaluations, surveys, audits, reviews and reports undertaken after the immediate post-training evaluations to assess whether the participants subsequently applied the training in practice and if the training led to positive change, could have been completed.

Please find attached Luna GM Impact Report:

PDF documents were sent to the requester with this response.  If you require a copy of the full response, together with the attachments, please contact NHS GM’s FOI team – nhsgm.foi@nhs.net