Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a named clinical lead for every woman accessing NHS maternity services to improve continuity of care and accountability for patient outcomes.

We recognise the potential for continuity of care within maternity services to improve women’s experience of maternity care and reduce inequalities in outcomes. However, maternity services need to have enough staff with the right skills in the right places to implement continuity of care teams safely.

NHS England has encouraged providers to prioritise the establishment of Enhanced Midwifery Continuity of Care teams where staffing allows, which provide care to women and families experiencing the greatest vulnerability and social complexity to help reduce health inequalities. Over £10 million in recurrent funding has supported these teams, including maternity support workers releasing additional midwifery time in the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods.

An independent evaluation found that enhanced model of continuity of carer teams provided greater capacity for midwives to deliver enhanced care to the women that are most likely to experience poor outcomes. An evaluation of longer-term outcomes will be available in 2027.

NHS England has not made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of continuity of care teams in international settings but continues to learn from best practice both in England and internationally. The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce is comprised of experts and key stakeholders from across the maternity and neonatal sector, and wider health sector. This includes families, clinicians, academics, royal colleges and international expertise.

The National Health Service has established Maternal Medicine Networks (MMNs) across England to improve access to specialist medical care for women with chronic and acute medical problems during pregnancy. This approach has been strengthened by the Maternal Care Bundle, which requires all NHS trusts to put pathways in place from all acute settings to the MMNs for acutely unwell pregnant or recently pregnant women. presenting with symptoms or diagnostic uncertainty; and for women with complex epilepsy.

In January 2026, NHS England published the Improving Postnatal Care Toolkit, to support ICBs to improve postnatal care. This highlights the importance of seamless co-ordination between services, with a dedicated professional overseeing and co-ordinating every stage of a woman’s postnatal care and particularly for women and infants with multiple social and medical needs.