The Government has launched an investigation into maternity and neonatal services alongside an independent taskforce to improve care.
In a letter to trusts and ICB chief executives, NHS England’s chief executive Sir Jim Mackey said this was off the back of ‘significant failings’ in maternity services in parts of the NHS.
The investigation will conduct urgent reviews of up to 10 trusts where there are specific issues between now and December, as well as looking at the system as a whole.
The taskforce meanwhile will be chaired by health secretary Wes Streeting and will bring together staff, campaigners, experts and representatives of families to help ‘drive improvement’ across the NHS.
Announcing the investigation, Mr Streeting said: ‘To me, the taskforce will answer some of the most pressing issues the families have put at the top of the list, namely, how can we ensure that women and their partners are always listened to when they raise concerns about their pregnancy or labour?
‘What else should we be doing to save babies and women from dying or being severely harmed? How do we get better at spotting when things go wrong in units, and how do we tackle this before it grows?’
He added that Sir Jim and chief nursing officer Duncan Barton would meet with the trusts of ‘greatest concern’ including Leeds, Gloucester, Mid and South Essex and Sussex to ‘hold them to account for improvement’.
A new digital system will also be rolled out to maternity services by November to flag potential safety concerns in trusts, as well as an anti-discrimination programme to tackle inequalities in care for Black, Asian and other underserved communities.
The letter said that in the meantime, boards with responsibilities relating to maternity and neonatal care should be ‘rigorous’ about tackling poor behaviour and review their approach to reviewing data on the quality of maternity and neonatal services.
Responding to the announcement, chief executive of NHS Providers, Daniel Elkeles said: ‘This rapid investigation needs to get to the heart of why maternity services in England are falling far short of where they need to be and what needs to change to improve the quality of care for all mothers and their babies in the future.
‘It must get to the root of why there are significant, systemic challenges that affect trusts’ ability to consistently deliver high-quality care as well as morale and culture within maternity services.
‘It is right that efforts to drive tangible improvements to maternity and neonatal care are front and centre in this review. The families whose lives have been devastated by failings in maternity services deserve nothing less.’
The previous Government had announced almost £35m for maternity services over three years, in March 2024. This was to pay for an extra 160 midwives and the training of 6,000 clinical staff in neonatal resuscitation.
What boards should do
The letter asked NHS boards with responsibilities relating to maternity and neonatal services to:
- Be rigorous in tackling poor behaviour where it exists; where there are examples of poor team cultures and behaviours these need addressing without delay,
- Listen directly to families that have experienced harm at the point when concerns are raised or identified; it is important we all create the conditions for staff to speak up, learn from mistakes, and at the same time staff who repeatedly demonstrate a lack of compassion or openness when things go wrong need to be robustly managed,
- Ensure you are setting the right culture: supporting, listening and working, through coproduction, with your maternity and neonatal voice partnership, and local women, and families,
- Review your approach to reviewing data on the quality of your maternity and neonatal services, closely monitoring outcomes and experience and delivering improvements to both,
- Retain a laser focus on tackling inequalities, discrimination and racism within your services, including tracking and addressing variation and putting in place key interventions; a new anti-discrimination programme from August will support our leadership teams to improve culture and practice,
- This also means accelerating our collective plans to provide enhanced continuity of care in the most deprived neighbourhoods, providing additional support for the women that most need it.
Source: NHS England
