Undertaker's campaign to get bereavement discussed in schools to be discussed in parliament

A Shropshire undertaker's campaign to get bereavement and discussions of death added to the national curriculum is to be discussed in parliament.

Funeral Director John Adams of Perry & Phillips in Bridgnorth

John Adams, who is a director of Perry & Phillips Funeral Directors in Bridgnorth, launched a petition in 2022 with the support of the National Association of Funeral Directors.

He has also worked with MPs such as South Shropshire's Philip Dunne, who has also spoken at national level to push to get Mr Adams' idea introduced.

Under parliamentary rules, petitions with more than 100,000 signatures are scheduled for debate in the House of Commons.

While Mr Adams' petition only garnered just over 11,300 signatures, falling short of the number required, parliamentarians sometimes schedule debates on petitions with a lower number of signatories if they are considered applicable.

Mr Adams, who has also this week been named as Ambassador for bereavement charity The Good Grief Trust, said he has now been informed by parliament that his petition is set to be debated on June 17.

In a statement on Facebook he said: “On Wednesday, I received notification from Parliament that the Petitions Committee had held a meeting to consider scheduling petitions with over 100K signatures for debate.

“The Committee sometimes schedules debates on petitions under this threshold. They were pleased to tell me that the Petitions Committee agreed to schedule a debate on two petitions about children and bereavement, including our petition to 'Add content on death, dying and bereavement to the national curriculum'.”

He said the other petition that will be debated alongside is to “Record the number of bereaved children to ensure they are supported”.

Mr Adams added that the debate, which will be streamed online on the UK Parliament YouTube channel, will take place at 4.30pm in Westminster Hall.

“It’s difficult to put into words what this means following two years of talks, travelling, seminars, meetings, podcasts and much more,” Mr Adams added. “Simply, my soul is invested and I can picture the outcome on society. Thank you again for all those who have supported and believed. Parliament here we come.”