Chair’s Report - Spring 2010

Lights of Love In December I was once again impressed by the teamwork between groups, networks, staff and trustees in organising the six Lights of Love events throughout the UK. I attended the Nottingham event and as I sat in St Peter’s the thought of hundreds of people around the UK sharing the same experiences, thoughts and reflections for our babies, sent a shiver down my spine.

Research In February the Board of Trustees met with Neal Long and our Research Manager Janet Scott to discuss and agree on the funding of our first research projects. Janet and vice chair Kate Anker attended the WellBeing of Women Research Advisory Committee (RAC) which sat over two days in late January deliberating over a large number of research projects and fed back to the Board on the RAC’s recommendations. I would like to thank Janet and Kate for the clarity and professionalism of their feedback which I am pleased to say resulted in a unanimous decision on which research projects to fund and was a great example in the way staff and trustees can work together. The funding of research is also a historic landmark for our charity in terms of our third aim.

Seeing and Holding – NICE Guidelines I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was involved in supporting our campaign to challenge the current NICE Guidelines on “Seeing and Holding” which culminated in a meeting with NICE on the 29th January 2010. Due to the careful and structured campaign led by our Improving Bereavement Care Manager Judith Schott and Neal Long, including national media coverage, NICE agreed to clarify the intended meaning of the recommendation on seeing and holding a stillborn baby. In line with regular practice, they will revisit the guideline when it is next due to be updated and review any new evidence at that time. We have been assured that we will be included as a stakeholder in future discussions about this issue. Well done to everyone involved.

Meeting with Bliss Trustees Sands Trustees held a meeting with the Bliss Trustees in March. It was a very productive, open meeting and a chance to share ideas, best practice, celebrate our successful joint collaboration to date and explore possible opportunities for future partnership. We shall be having further meetings and dialogue with Bliss to pursue these initiatives for the benefit of both our charities.

Stormont, Northern Ireland Assembly On March 23rd I attended the launch of Every Baby Matters in Northern Ireland. Working in collaboration with two other charities, TinyLife and Bliss the event was a real success and a great day for Sands in Northern Ireland. An unprecedented number of MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) attended from across all the political parties. Once again the media coverage was extensive with our Northern Ireland Co-ordinator Steven Guy and trustee Colin Pidgeon doing a number of excellent interviews as well as Katie Duff our Media Manager being featured in the Times. Steven also spoke with great passion at the Stormont event delivering a very powerful Sands message. I think that we should all be immensely proud of the work our charity has done since the Why17? launch at the House of Commons which was just over twelve months ago.

Steve Hale
Chair