Ockenden Review

Lord Lansley Excerpts

Monday 14th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I respectfully disagree with the noble Baroness’s insight—the Ockenden review does not point the finger at staffing levels in relation to the problems; it points the finger at a number of items, particularly the cultural problems that emerge when differences of opinion between clinicians and midwives arise and where a culture of respect breaks down. Those cultural differences can be improved by what we would politely call education; it is essential that we invest in the right kind of education in order to bring midwives, obstetricians and gynaecologists closer together and to break down the hierarchical differences and the ideological differences about the best way to have a baby.

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, as a Secretary of State responsible for the health service for some of this period—two years out of two decades—I share in the responsibility for what happened here and for the fact that it was not known about and that action was not taken sooner. I am sure that others who have been Ministers in the department over these two decades will feel likewise.

What is shocking is not only the individual trauma that parents have suffered but the scale of what the Ockenden review discloses—we are grateful to Donna Ockenden and her colleagues for persisting in trying to understand and disclose the scale of what has happened. I ask my noble friend about our responsibility, which was, of course, that there should be external oversight and action taken when these things go wrong. From my point of view, one of my objectives was that there should be more clinically led commissioning so that local clinicians would understand what was happening and have the power to step in.

The Ockenden report shows that, in May 2013, the clinical commissioning groups set up a review that, in October 2013, reported:

“The overall findings of the review demonstrate that this is a safe and a good quality service”.


I encourage Donna Ockenden and the department to look very carefully at how they could ensure that local clinicians responsible for commissioning take that responsibility seriously and act upon it.

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

On behalf of the Chamber, I thank my noble friend for his touching testimony. He is entirely right; there are two CCGs in the local area: the Telford and Wrekin CCG and the Shropshire CCG. They did exactly what they should have done in 2013, launching an investigation into the levels of service at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. It is not clear why the findings of that report turned out as they did; nor is it clear why other interventions, or potential interventions, by the CQC and other regulators did not get to the bottom of the problem. Those questions will be addressed in the second of Donna Ockenden’s reports, in 2021; there has not been time for them all to be addressed in the interim report, but there is much more to go into, and this is undoubtedly one of the important points she will need to address.