Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of indices of deprivation of women who access maternity services at the Royal Free Hospital.

Population health trends in North Central London (NCL), including historic birth rates and the future projected population size, have informed proposals to improve maternity and neonatal services included in the NCL Integrated Care System’s (ICS) Start Well programme.

Modelling to inform the proposals included in the NCL Start Well programme has considered changing population demographics. This has included looking at changes to the size and birth rate of the populations living in NCL, as well as the complexity of births, which has included looking at factors such as caesarean rates.

The Department, along with NHS England, recognises that the foundations of lifelong health are built during pregnancy, at birth, and in childhood. This is why the NCL ICS’s Start Well programme has taken a population health approach, looking at data relating to ethnicity and deprivation, and impact on maternity outcomes across all units in NCL, including the Royal Free Hospital.