Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve (a) neonatal care for and (b) support for the parents of premature babies.

We are committed to improving neonatal services and supporting parents to be involved in all aspects of their baby's care. NHS England is implementing the Neonatal Critical Care Review Recommendations, investing £45 million in increasing neonatal cot capacity and assigning care coordinators for all Neonatal Operational Delivery Networks to implement care programmes, improving parent and family experiences. NHS England’s Three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services sets out a programme of work to make maternity and neonatal care safer, more equitable, and more personalised. This plan includes:

• increasing the neonatal workforce;
• implementing an updated Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle of interventions to reduce the number of still births and pre-term births;
• commissioning a Patient Report Experience Measure to understand the experiences of families in neonatal services;
• establishing Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnerships to champion the voices of parents in decision making; and
• supporting parents’ mental health through Maternal Mental Health Services which provide psychological therapy for women experiences mental health difficulties related to maternity experience.

Additionally, NHS England has recently concluded a review of neonatal estates. They are in the process of analysing the findings, which will be used to inform the next steps.