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 ensure NHS Trusts implement interventions set out in (a) the guidance entitled Saving Babies’ Lives Version Two: A care bundle for reducing perinatal mortality, published on 15 March 2019, and (b) other best practice guidance on preterm birth care.

All trusts are now implementing Version 3 of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle, which was published in May 2023, and provides maternity units with detailed guidance to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal deaths, and preterm births.

The National Health Service has taken action to reduce variation in maternal and neonatal care through the Maternity Incentive Scheme, and through implementation of the latest version of the bundle, which is one of the safety actions that trusts must comply with. As of April 2024, during the fifth year of the scheme, 104 out of 120, or 87% of, providers were considered to be on track to fully implement Version 3 of the bundle.  We are delivering other key initiatives to reduce preterm birth, such as:

• the 14 Maternal Medicine Networks across England, to ensure that women with high-risk medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, renal disease, and epilepsy, have access to a specialist physician with expertise in managing complex medical problems before, during, and after pregnancy;
• all local areas publishing Equity and Equality Action Plans, which set out tailored interventions to tackle inequalities for women and babies from ethnic minority backgrounds and those living in the most deprived areas; and
• the first ever National Institute for Health and Care Research Challenge funding call being launched in March 2024, backed by £50 million, which tasks researchers and policymakers with finding new ways to tackle maternity disparities and poor pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm birth.