Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many neonatal units have the recommended amount of overnight parent accommodation to meet the standards outlined in the toolkit for high quality neonatal services; and what resources are provided to NHS trusts to increase the provision of overnight parent accommodation in places where that standard is not met.

As part of a review into neonatal critical care, NHS England is currently in the process of collating information on the availability of parent accommodation in hospitals and neonatal units, as an important part of the service specification. Individual National Health Service providers are responsible for providing this service within the current contractual arrangements. NHS England are visiting every trust as part of the Quality Surveillance Team reviews.

The Neonatal Critical Care Review is to make recommendations that will support the delivery of high quality, safe, sustainable and equitable models of neonatal care across England. It will be presenting a draft review report to NHS England in October 2017. The draft report will be then be consulted upon before being finalised. The Neonatal Critical Care Review has already set out a range of themes that are to be factored into Local Maternity Systems’ Transformation Plans.