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 (a) maternal and (b) post-natal care.

We continue to work with NHS England as it delivers its three-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow the workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure women and babies receive safe, personalised, and compassionate care. We know there is much more we need to do, however good progress has been made, including:

• improving access to specialist perinatal mental health services for women before, during, and after pregnancy. A record 63,345 women have accessed a specialist community perinatal mental health service or maternal mental health services in the 12 months to January 2025;
• implementing a revised package of interventions in the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal death, and preterm birth, as well as initiatives to reduce inequalities;
• establishing 14 maternal medicine networks to ensure that women with chronic and acute medical problems related to pregnancy have access to specialist management and care;
• all Maternity and Neonatal units completing the Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme, to establish a more compassionate culture in the National Health Service;
• putting women and families at the heart of local decision making, with increased funding for Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnerships; and
• publishing new guidance so women are offered a general practice appointment six to eight weeks after birth, to provide personalised postnatal care and to solely focus on the physical and mental health of the woman.