Nottingham Maternity and Neonatal Services

Baroness Shawcross-Wolfson Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend is right to draw comparisons and, as I said earlier, I certainly agree on the point about culture that is made very clearly in the report from Donna Ockenden. I will be looking very closely at that also in the recommendations of my noble friend Lady Amos. As I said earlier, we have sought to make change. I do also think that accountability and transparency are absolutely key. It is one thing to seek to make change, but another for people to feel confident and to know it has happened.

[Baroness Shawcross-Wolfson (Con)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her eloquent and moving statement and her commitment to taking action on this. The noble Baroness said that the workforce planning recommendations from the Ockenden review and potentially also from the Amos review will be picked up in the maternity taskforce action plan, due at the end of the year. Can she tell us how that will fit with the upcoming wider NHS 10-year workforce plan? Will the wider 10-year workforce plan also look at the staffing and training needed for safer maternity services, and can she confirm when it will be published?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

We are soon expecting the 10-year workforce plan. In its considerations, it will address patient safety, because that is one of the requirements when thinking about workforce. But the really close look in the way the noble Baroness seeks will be through the plan which the taskforce is overseeing, having received the recommendations. It is the case that maternity services, for a whole range of reasons, including the absolutely shocking experiences that we have all referred to, have suffered in some areas because of a lack of safety, a lack of listening, and the wrong kind of culture and leadership—the list goes on. I know that noble Lords will have looked at the report and I would want to ensure that maternity services have their particular focus, in order that what I believe will be a credible plan by the end of the year will take account of the very points that the noble Baroness rightly makes.