Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on the Rapid Resolution and Redress Scheme to the number of cases of new birth injuries and deaths.

From March 2017, the Department ran a public consultation into the potential parameters of a ‘Rapid Resolution and Redress’ (RRR) scheme for severe avoidable birth injuries. The three main objectives of which were to reduce the number of severe avoidable birth injuries by promoting a ‘no-blame’ learning culture; to ensure a better experience for children who have been injured, their families and affected clinicians; and to address the high and increasing cost of such cases on the National Health Service budget when fully litigated.

Following consultation, we decided not to introduce the RRR scheme but instead to pursue the above objectives as part of broader, cross-system work to improve the safety culture in maternity services and to provide rapid information and care to families who have experienced an avoidable fatality or injury of their baby during birth. The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch is now investigating all cases in which a term baby was considered to be alive and healthy at the onset of labour, but the birth outcome was severe brain damage, stillbirth, or neonatal death, as well as maternal deaths, to identify common themes and influence systemic change. NHS Resolution’s Early Notification scheme is providing a more rapid, caring response to families in cases of severe harm, supporting a learning culture, and providing support for staff involved in traumatic births.