HUNDREDS of children’s shoes were laid in Parliament Square today in a bid to pressure ministers to do more for bereaved parents.

Campaigner Ceri Menai-Davis criticised the lack of mental health support for families who experience “unimaginable loss” and called for a bereaved parent support package.

The charity It’s Never You was set up in memory of his six-year-old son Hugh, who died in 2021 after suffering from cancer.

Mr Menai-Davis and his wife Frances are also behind the campaign for Hugh’s Law, which proposes paid leave for parents of seriously or terminally ill children.

The government is currently consulting on both paid leave for parents in such circumstances and for unpaid carers.

Speaking ahead of the event, Mr Menai-Davis said: “Each pair of shoes represents a child gone too soon and a family learning to live with an unimaginable loss.

“Faced with impossible choices, many parents reduce their hours, take unpaid leave, leave work altogether, or are forced out of employment because they simply cannot balance work with being by their child’s side.”

He warned that by the time a child dies, many parents are no longer in employment and therefore cannot meet the qualifying criteria for statutory bereavement pay.

He said that disability living allowance is stopped at midnight following a child’s death, adding: “There is no automatic mental health support for parents.

“There is no guaranteed support for siblings. There is no structured pathway to help families rebuild their lives.

“The answer is not simply more bereavement leave. Many parents will never qualify for it.

“The answer is a bereaved parent support package that is not reliant on employment status, alongside a compassionate transition of financial support after a child’s death.

“No parent should be excluded because they were forced to leave work to be with their child.”

Labour MP Mary Kelly Foy, whose daughter died aged 27, paid tribute to Hugh’s parents for their “extraordinary determination every day in turning personal heartbreak into a campaign for justice and compassion.”

She said: “As we mark this day, we honour not only the memories of the children we have lost, but also the tireless work of bereaved parents who continue to fight so that no other family have to endure unnecessary hardship.

“Their voices must be heard.”