Andy Burnham has expressed support for extending mandatory suicide prevention training to all local authorities in England, prompted by the case of Matilda Davis, a 36-year-old parent-carer who died by suicide last October.
Davis, a former art teacher, had been caring full-time for her seven-year-old disabled son while managing significant personal stress, including anxiety about an impending divorce. She had communicated to multiple professionals that she was struggling to cope and felt exhausted by her circumstances. She died minutes after an emotional meeting with social workers who had not received suicide prevention training.
At Davis’s inquest in March, the coroner issued a rare prevention of future deaths notice directing Warwickshire council to implement mandatory suicide prevention training for approximately 600 staff members, primarily social workers. The coroner noted that the social workers had not asked Davis about suicidal thoughts despite being aware of her significant distress, nor had they directed her to crisis services.
Manuela Perteghella, the Liberal Democrat MP representing the area where Davis lived, raised the matter at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, citing University of Birmingham research indicating that 41% of parent-carers have contemplated suicide. Burnham indicated his agreement with the proposal and committed to arranging a meeting with Perteghella and Davis’s family to discuss the proposal and related matters affecting unpaid carers.
Davis’s brother stated that the family believed the training would have prevented his sister’s death, noting that direct questioning about suicidal thoughts could have elicited a response that might have changed the outcome. He emphasized the importance of making such training mandatory across all councils rather than leaving implementation decisions to individual authorities.
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