Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve safety within maternity services.

The Government continues to work with the National Health Service as it delivers its three-year plan for maternity and neonatal services. The plan sets out how the NHS will make maternity and neonatal care safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families.

As part of the delivery plan, an updated version of the ‘Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle’ is being rolled out across England, which is a package of interventions aimed to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal death, and preterm birth, as well as initiatives to reduce inequalities. Additionally, 14 Maternal Medicine Networks have been developed across England to ensure that women with chronic and acute medical problems related to pregnancy have access to specialist management and care.

Additional funding has also been provided for Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnerships to ensure local voices are used to inform decisions and services. All local leadership teams are taking part in a Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme, helping them to develop and maintain a positive safety culture.

The Government is also currently piloting a training programme to help avoid brain injury in childbirth to improve safety for mothers and their babies. If successful, national rollout is expected to commence this year.

While good progress has been made, the Government recognises that there are real issues within maternity services. Whilst change will not happen overnight, we are determined to go further to ensure all women and babies receive the care they deserve, and we have committed to providing support to trusts failing on maternity care, recruit thousands of new midwives, and tackle the unacceptable inequalities that exist.