Tender: Compassionate Birmingham Bereavement and End-of-Life Support Services – Birmingham City Council

About

Birmingham City Council is seeking an organisation to deliver the Compassionate Birmingham workstream, a core part of the Birmingham Ageing Well Strategy and the Council’s Compassionate Birmingham commitment. The workstream supports people who are dying, bereaved, grieving or caring and follows the Compassionate Cities Charter by Professor Allan Kellehear. Examples of previous work include arts-and-health approaches, supporting people dying alone in hospital, offering training to community organisations and funding death cafés. Pre-pandemic NICE guidance indicated around 30% of people experiencing a close bereavement needed organised support and about 10% required specialist mental health interventions, while 20–30% of bereaved adults were unable to access the support they needed; untreated bereavement is associated with increased risks to health and wellbeing, and pre-pandemic costs were estimated at £8bn annually plus an additional £23bn in lost revenue. The contract will commence on 1 November 2026 and run for a period of three years.