Families Kept Apart: Accommodation

Neonatal units in the UK seriously lack the facilities for parents to stay overnight on or near the unit.

National standards – which only require one bed per intensive care cot – are usually unmet, meaning parents often can’t stay with their baby even if their baby is critically ill or they live a long way from the hospital.

We think this needs to change.

• A Bliss survey in 2022 found that 87 per cent of parents who did not have access to overnight accommodation said that this stopped them from being involved in their baby’s care at least sometimes.
• Parents described leaving their baby at night to return home as one of the hardest parts of having a baby in neonatal care.

• The cost-of-living crisis is impacting families with a baby in neonatal care. Our cost-of-living crisis briefing (PDF) underscores the costs which come up during a baby's stay in the hospital.
• The biggest reported cost is travel to and from neonatal units daily, with survey respondents spending £109 per week on average.
• The time and cost spent travelling could be reduced for parents if they were able to stay overnight on or near the neonatal unit.

In 2017, Bliss successfully campaigned for the NHS Long Term Plan to include a commitment to invest in parent accommodation on neonatal units.

This commitment was renewed in the Three Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal services in 2023, but has yet to be delivered.

Our Families Kept Apart campaign in England, Scotland and Wales launched in 2024. We continue to push for the investment needed to support parents to stay overnight with their baby in neonatal care.

In September 2024, we held a webinar for neonatal staff. This webinar aimed to discuss how services can best support parents to stay overnight and advocate for improvements to their units. Attendees heard from a parent with lived experience who has campaigned with us on this issue, a representative from the Sick Children's Trust Charity and healthcare professionals from units who are paving the way in keeping families together.

In November 2024, ahead of World Prematurity Day, the Preterm birth: Reducing risk and improving lives report was published. Bliss provided written and oral evidence to the Committee. We urged them to prioritise investment in accommodation to address the routine separation of parents from their babies on neonatal units. This resulted in two recommendations to address this issue being included in the report:

1. "NHS England should publish the findings of its maternity and neonatal estates survey, setting out what proportion of neonatal units are currently able to provide sufficient accommodation for all families, as per the updated service specification for neonatal critical care.
2. In addition, the Government and NHS England should set out their plans for future investment in parental accommodation on neonatal units, to support improved provision of family integrated care."

The Preterm Birth report is a vital tool for driving change.

Sign up to our campaign newsletter to hear updates. For example, be the first to know about upcoming campaign actions.