Bereavement: Counselling

The Government is committed to ensuring that families bereaved by homicide receive the support they need to help them build resilience to cope with the impact of these devastating crimes. That is why we commission a National Homicide Service, delivered by Victim Support, to provide a consistent level of support across England and Wales. This is a caseworker-led service which offers emotional, practical, specialist, advocacy, and peer support. The service is free of charge and support can be accessed no matter when the homicide occurred. In addition, service users can re-join the service at any time.

Alongside the caseworker support, caseworkers can also arrange access to specialist support such as trauma therapy and bereavement counselling. Therapy offered through the National Homicide Service is designed to be a short-term intervention to help stabilise the service user and manage the immediate trauma. The number of sessions provided is informed by established clinical guidance including National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. Where more sustained or specialist support is required, the Service works with bereaved families to plan next steps, including facilitating access to longer term support for example through a referral to NHS services, whilst continuing to provide emotional and practical support throughout.

We are currently procuring a new Homicide Service contract, due to commence in April 2027. This sets out a minimum requirement of twelve therapy sessions but also stipulates that the Service should carefully consider requests for additional sessions to ensure it is responsive to individual circumstances.