Why workplace bereavement training matters
Around 7.9 million people in employment are bereaved each year in the UK, and grief is estimated to cost the UK economy £23 billion annually through absence and lost productivity. Only around half of employers have a bereavement policy in place at all.
Grief rarely appears in your data labelled as grief. It shows up as stress, anxiety, absence and quiet attrition, which is why most workplaces underestimate it. Bereavement is the one certainty every workforce shares, and usually the one it is least prepared for.
The legal picture is changing too. The Employment Rights Act 2025 makes bereavement leave a day-one right, extends it to pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, and is expected in force 2027. Your policy will change. The conversations will not, unless you change them.
Our training programmes
All training is delivered live by experienced bereavement specialists, online or in person. Sessions are scenario-based and built on real situations and real language, not theory. Prices shown are for virtual delivery; in-person delivery carries an additional charge.
Grief Literacy training
A short awareness session for members from across the workforce.
A single live session giving your managers and teams a shared, confident understanding of grief: what it is, how it shows up at work, and how to respond well. The fastest way to lift the whole workplace's baseline.
Covers what grief is and is not, why it is not linear, how it varies across cultures, neurodiversity and age, what to say and what to avoid, and when to signpost.
Grief First Aider Programme
A certified cohort your people can turn to.
Physical first aiders and mental health first aiders are now standard in most workplaces. Grief First Aiders are the missing third. This programme trains and certifies a named group of colleagues, so that a bereaved employee knows exactly who to turn to, and does not have to guess.
Delivered as four live one-hour sessions, in a small cohort of up to 12. Participants finish with individual certification, a digital handbook, and clarity on the boundaries of the role. We recommend one Grief First Aider per 50 employees.
Bespoke training
For the situations that do not fit a standard course.
Some workplaces face bereavement in ways a general programme cannot anticipate: a death in service, a workforce that has lost a colleague to suicide, safety-critical or emergency service roles, or teams who encounter death as part of the job. We design and deliver training built around your sector, your risks and your people.
Why Memory Robin
Bereavement professionals, not generalist trainers.
Nicola Coutu-Langmead, Co-founder and Head of Training, Research and ContentLed by a recognised specialist. Our training is headed by Nicola Coutu-Langmead, Co-founder and Head of Training, Research and Content, former Head of Training and Research at Child Bereavement UK and a former Marie Curie bereavement counsellor, working with experienced trainers drawn from across the bereavement support network.
The whole-family dimension. Behind almost every bereaved employee is a grieving family: a partner holding things together, and children asking questions nobody feels ready to answer. Workplace support almost never reaches them. Ours is built to. Memory Robin is an organisational member of the Childhood Bereavement Network.
It works alongside your EAP. Your EAP is reactive and begins when someone picks up the phone. Training builds the capability inside your workplace before anyone needs to make that call.
Evidence for your board. Wellbeing measured before and after, a written performance report and review call each quarter, and an annual impact summary.
Safe and professional. Experienced bereavement professionals throughout, counselling delivered by independently contracted BACP-registered counsellors in regular clinical supervision, a named Designated Safeguarding Lead, ICO registered and fully insured.
Coverage across the whole of the UK and North America. Training is delivered online or in person anywhere in the UK, and selected online training courses are also available across North America.
Frequently asked questions
What is workplace bereavement training?
Workplace bereavement training teaches managers and colleagues how to support someone who has been bereaved: what to say in the first conversation, how to handle leave and the return to work, and when to signpost to specialist help. It is distinct from counselling, which supports the bereaved person directly.
What is a Grief First Aider?
A Grief First Aider is a trained, certified colleague that bereaved employees can turn to for support at work, in the same way a workplace has physical first aiders and mental health first aiders. Memory Robin recommends one Grief First Aider per 50 employees.
How much does bereavement training cost?
Memory Robin's bereavement training starts from £950 +VAT for a Grief Literacy session (up to 30 attendees) and from £3,950 +VAT for a certified Grief First Aider cohort of up to 12 people. Prices are for the whole group, not per person. Your workplace's quotation is a single fixed figure built from your headcount, with no per-employee fees. All prices shown are for virtual delivery; in-person delivery carries an additional charge.
Do participants receive a certificate?
Yes. Grief First Aiders complete the programme with individual certification and a digital handbook, and your workplace receives a record of everyone trained and when each certification is due for renewal.
Is the training delivered online or in person?
Both. All programmes are delivered live by a bereavement specialist, online or at your site. Prices shown are for virtual delivery; in-person delivery carries an additional charge.
How long does bereavement training take?
The Grief Literacy session is a single live session. The Grief First Aider Programme is four live one-hour sessions delivered over four weeks.
Who should attend bereavement training?
Line managers and HR colleagues benefit most from Grief Literacy. Grief First Aiders are usually drawn from wellbeing champions, mental health first aiders or HR, though any trusted colleague is a strong candidate.
Does this replace our EAP?
No. An EAP supports an individual once they ask for help. Training builds capability inside your workplace before anyone needs to make that call. The two are designed to work together.
Is there evidence that grief support has a positive impact?
Yes. Around one in four employees is bereaved in any year, and poorly supported grief drives absence, presenteeism and resignations. Acas and CIPD both recommend trained, named support and manager capability. We also measure confidence before and after every session, so you see the evidence from your own workforce.
How do we build the business case internally?
Three numbers carry it: one in four of your workforce bereaved each year, the cost of a single avoidable leaver (typically more than a whole programme), and one fixed group price. Add before-and-after confidence scores and quarterly reporting, and it is a measurable line in your wellbeing strategy, not a goodwill spend.
Can we pilot it before rolling out?
Yes. Most workplaces start with a single Grief Literacy session or one Grief First Aider cohort in one team, site or division, see the confidence scores, then scale from there. Nothing commits you to a workforce-wide rollout on day one.
What is changing in bereavement leave law?
The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a day-one right to bereavement leave, unpaid at the statutory minimum, and extends protected leave to pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. It is expected to take effect in 2027. Bereaved partner's paternity leave is already in force.
Arrange a 30-minute meeting
We will listen to where you are now, show you what the programme would look like for your workplace, recommend the right starting point, and give you a clear fixed price. From there, you decide.
Arrange a 30-minute meetingGrief Literacy
From £950 +VAT per group of up to 30 attendees
Grief literacy is a shared, working understanding of grief: what it is, how it shows up at work, what helps, and what does not. It is the fastest way to raise a workplace's baseline, because it gives everyone the same language on the same day.
The session
One hour, live, delivered by a bereavement specialist, online or in person. Accessible to everyone, with no prior knowledge assumed and nothing clinical about the delivery. We cover what grief actually is and how long it really lasts, the myths that cause the most damage at work, how grief shows up in behaviour and performance, what to say and what to avoid, how to support a colleague over months rather than days, and how to look after yourself while supporting someone else.
Who it is for
Members from across the workforce. We also recommend it for any team currently experiencing a bereavement, and for the wider workforce as a rolling programme. We run repeat cohorts so a large population can be covered without disruption.
What changes afterwards
Confidence is measured before and after every session, so you can see the shift and report it. In practice, the change workplaces notice first is that people stop avoiding the bereaved colleague, because they are no longer afraid of saying the wrong thing. Grief Literacy is often the first step towards the Grief First Aider Programme, and works best alongside the Compassionate Return Framework.
Currently bereaved attendees? Handled carefully: nobody is singled out, asked to share, or put on the spot, and attendees are told in advance what the session covers.
Recorded? Never. Every session is delivered live by a specialist, because a recording cannot respond to the room.
The Grief First Aider Programme
From £3,950 +VAT per 12 person cohort. Reduced rates for additional cohorts
A grief first aider is a trained, certified colleague people turn to when someone is bereaved: not a counsellor, but someone who knows what to say, what to offer, and when to escalate. The idea will be familiar from mental health first aid, but grief needs its own focus: it is not an illness, and the skills that help are not covered by mental health training. This programme certifies colleagues in exactly those skills.
Four live sessions
1 · Understanding grief. What grief actually is, how it behaves, why it is not an illness, how it varies across cultures, neurodiversity and age, and the myths that cause the most harm at work.
2 · Compassionate conversations. What to say and what to avoid. Practising the first conversation, the corridor moment, and the check-in three months later. Looking after your own wellbeing as a First Aider.
3 · Grief beyond the workplace. Supporting a colleague whose family is grieving too, harder circumstances such as sudden death, suicide, and baby or child loss, and when to signpost.
4 · A grief-aware workplace. Making support work in practice, managing return to work, and sustaining a supportive culture. Concludes with certification.
Who should be a grief first aider
Volunteers rather than appointees, drawn from across your teams and levels: often wellbeing champions, mental health first aiders or HR colleagues, though any trusted team member is a strong candidate. We recommend at least one per 50 employees.
What your workplace gets
Certified First Aiders on the Grief Confident Register, a digital handbook with conversation prompts and self-care guidance, a resources and signposting pack, and an HR sponsor summary. Impact is measured before and after using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, so you can report on outcomes rather than anecdote.
Counselling? No: the training is explicit about that boundary. First Aiders provide human support, practical help and confident signposting, and know when to escalate.
Format? Four one-hour live sessions, usually weekly over four weeks, online or in person, including shift-pattern scheduling for frontline teams.
Bespoke Training
Scoped and priced to your brief
Some situations do not fit a standard course. A team that has just lost a colleague. A workforce that encounters death as part of the job. A manager population that needs to go deeper than awareness. A loss that most training quietly skips over. Tell us the challenge and we will design the training around it.
What we are most often asked for
Frontline and emergency service teams, where exposure to death is part of the work and the culture around it is its own subject.
Sudden death and suicide, including how to support a team after a suicide and how to talk about it without causing further harm.
Baby and child loss, including miscarriage, stillbirth and the loss of a child, where silence at work is nearly universal.
Supporting a specific bereaved team, delivered quickly, in the weeks after a death.
Deeper line manager training, going well past awareness into the conversations, the return to work, and the long tail.
How it works
A conversation with our Head of Training, Research and Content to understand the situation, a written outline for you to approve, then live delivery by a specialist with direct experience of that context. We do not repurpose a generic deck. If a bereavement has just happened and you need help now, Crisis Support is the fastest route.
Compassionate Return Framework
From £1,950 +VAT
A compassionate return framework is the practice that surrounds a bereavement policy: what actually happens from the moment a manager is told, through leave, the return to work, and the year that follows, with the words for each stage. Your policy tells your managers what someone is entitled to. It does not tell them what to do. We build the part that is missing.
We do not draft your policy or advise on statutory entitlements. Those stay with you and your legal advisers. We build the practice that surrounds them.
What the framework covers
The journey, mapped. Every stage from the moment a manager is told, through leave, the return and the twelve months after, with what happens, who owns it and what triggers the next step.
The words, stage by stage. What to say on the first call, when they ask for more time, on the first day back, and on the anniversary.
Leave and return in practice. Keeping in touch without intruding, phased return, workload and adjustments, and the review points that stop good intentions fading.
The family, and the long tail. Support that reaches partners and grieving children, and what happens at three, six and twelve months, when the sympathy has run out and the grief has not.
Signposting and policy observations. The support you already have mapped to the moment it is needed, plus a plain note of where your policy falls silent in practice.
How it works
A discovery session, we read what you have, we build the framework, and we walk your HR team and line managers through it. Two to three weeks from start to finish. You receive the mapped framework, the conversation guides, and the templates. It covers the losses policies most often stay silent about, including miscarriage, stillbirth and the death of a child.
Crisis Support
Scoped to your situation, quoted as a fixed price before we begin
Most of our work prepares workplaces before bereavement arrives. Sometimes it arrives first. A colleague dies suddenly. A death in service. A suicide that leaves a whole team reeling and a leadership team with an announcement to make and no idea how to make it. Crisis Support is for those weeks. We step in alongside you, not instead of you.
What we do
Shaping what is said. The announcement, the manager briefings, the answers to the questions your people will actually ask.
Supporting the people closest to the loss. The team who sat next to them, the manager who found out first, the colleague who made the phone call.
Coaching your managers through the conversations they never expected to have.
Caring for the wider workforce through the weeks and months that follow: the funeral, the return of the empty desk, the anniversary.
One partner for comms, counselling, coaching and care, so you are not assembling support from four suppliers on your hardest day. Every crisis response is led by a senior bereavement specialist, and you do not need to be an existing client. We respond within one working day, usually much faster.
Get support: training@memoryrobin.comAdvisory, Coaching and Counselling
A specialist behind your HR team, all year
Some situations no policy can script. A death by suicide. A terminal diagnosis in the team. A bereaved employee whose return is not going well. A manager who is out of their depth and knows it. Our advisory line gives your HR and wellbeing leads a direct route to an experienced bereavement specialist for exactly those moments. Not a call centre, and not a triage script.
Coaching for the people carrying the weight
Supporting a grieving colleague takes a toll, and it usually falls on the same few people. We provide confidential coaching for HR leads, line managers and Grief First Aiders, so that the people holding your workplace together have somewhere to put it down.
Counselling, including for the family
One-to-one bereavement counselling, delivered by our independently contracted specialist counsellors: each a registered member of the BACP, insured, and in regular clinical supervision. And we reach past the employee. When someone loses a partner, there are often children at home with no support at all, and that is the single biggest reason employees struggle to return properly. Support built to reach the whole family, including grieving children, is where Memory Robin started.
Confidentiality: counselling and coaching are confidential. Employers receive aggregate reporting only: sessions delivered and whole-workplace themes, never anything identifying.
Counselling allocations sit within the Leading partnership. See the programme.