Following a serious incident or death of a loved one, the family support lead is a single point of contact for a family and will support them through the serious incident process. They work alongside the incident investigation lead ensuring that the family are supported throughout. The length of time they may be involved with a family and the level of involvement varies. 

This is a role that will be allocated by your senior leadership team to a senior healthcare practitioner such as deputy manager, team manager, clinical lead or matron for quality (this list is not exhaustive).

If in your job you will be expected to undertake this role, the information on this page should be used to help guide and support you throughout the process.

Please make sure you are familiar with the guidance below. It outlines what is expected from a family support lead and includes tips and checklists to help you. The checklist has been included separately as you may want to print this each time you act as a family support lead.

As part of the Kinnect project, we have developed training to support anyone who undertakes the family support lead role as part of their job.

For more information or to book your place on this training, please see our training page

Our peer supervision for family support leads has been introduced to offer emotional and practical support. Visit the FSL peer supervision page for information about what's involved

On our resources page we have information about the wide range of support available online and in our local communities. This is information that you may want to signpost your families to.

To avoid overwhelming someone, please just provide information about the services and support you feel would be most relevant and beneficial to them.

Our Trust Library and Knowledge Service have developed a list of recommended reading that can be accessed here

This information has been developed as part of the Trust's Kinnect project which aims to improve the experiences of families following a serious incident or complaint.