Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated to the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigation programme; and whether that funding is time limited.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has allocated £16 million to the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations Programme for this financial year, which is the last year of this spending review period. Future budgets will be allocated in the usual way as part of the next Spending Review.
The lifespan of the programme is under review and will continue to be overseen by the Care Quality Commission, until directed otherwise by the Department. The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, is funding an evaluation to understand whether Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch investigations and Perinatal Mortality Review Tool reviews have met their anticipated requirements, resulted in system level quality improvements in maternity care, and improved outcomes for parents and families.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the additional £165 million of annual funding provided by NHS England to improve maternity and neonatal care, which will rise to £186 million a year this year, and how this will directly improve babies’ health and development outcomes.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The investment within maternity and neonatal services supports the delivery of NHS England's three-year delivery plan, which will make maternity and neonatal care safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women and babies.
The plan outlines the investment we are making in listening to women and families, growing, retaining, and supporting our workforce, developing, and sustaining a culture of safety, and underpinning more personalised and equitable care. The plan sets out success measures for trusts, integrated care systems, and NHS England, to monitor the impacts and improvements at every level.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current annual (1) maternity, and (2) neonatal, budget for NHS England; and how much NHS England has expended annually in clinical negligence compensation for maternity care in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The annual budget for the NHS England Maternity Programme is £122 million. NHS England does not commission or budget for Maternity Services which is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS Providers, based on the latest available data which is 2021/22 Reference Costs, spent approximately £4 billion annually on Maternity Services. Neonatal services are commissioned and budgeted for through Specialised Commissioning. The latest available data shows an annual spend for 2023/24 of approximately £1 billion.
NHS Resolution manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England. The following table shows the cost of Clinical Negligence Claims Closed or otherwise Settled as a Periodical Payment Order (PPO) between 2018/19 and 2022/23 with damages paid (including PPOs paid to date), where the Specialty is 'Obstetrics', as advised by NHS Resolution:
Year of Closure of case (Settlement Year for PPOs) | Damages Paid (£) | NHS Legal Costs Paid (£) | Claimant Legal Costs Paid (£) | Total Paid (£) |
2018/19 | 605,688,009 | 25,560,735 | 78,394,471 | 709,643,216 |
2019/20 | 495,458,879 | 22,536,708 | 72,295,468 | 590,291,055 |
2020/21 | 501,965,729 | 22,080,962 | 68,796,850 | 592,843,541 |
2021/22 | 503,741,949 | 21,897,291 | 78,114,994 | 603,754,235 |
2022/23 | 596,598,917 | 25,039,074 | 84,939,593 | 706,577,584 |
Total | 2,703,453,483 | 117,114,772 | 382,541,376 | 3,203,109,631 |
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the £95 million of additional funding for maternity services in England announced by her Department in 2021, how many of the additional (a) 1,200 midwives and (b) 100 obstetricians have been recruited to the NHS in England as of 10 October 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not held centrally in the format requested. However, data on the number of midwives and obstetricians as of July 2022 is available at the following link:
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Final report of the Ockenden review, published on 30 March 2022, when the Government plans to increase maternity funding by the £200 to 350 million per annum recommended by that report.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England invested £127 million into the maternity system in 2022 which will go towards the National Health Service maternity workforce and improving neonatal care. We will keep further funding under review.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the budget for NHS maternity services is for 2022/23; and how much was spent on the provision of maternity services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There is no national budget for maternity services, as this is not commissioned by NHS England. Maternity services are commissioned by integrated care boards based on the needs of the local population.
The following table shows reference cost data for expenditure on National Health Service maternity services in England in each year from 2015/16 to 2019/20.
Financial year | Expenditure on maternity services |
2015/16 | £2.58 billion |
2016/17 | £2.72 billion |
2017/18 | £2.84 billion |
2018/19 | £2.81 billion |
2019/20 | £2.89 billion |
Data since 2020/21 is not currently held as maternity expenditure is derived from reference costs data to 2019/20, the most recently available information.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the £127 million announced by the Government on 24 March 2022 to support the maternity NHS workforce and increase neonatal care has been allocated.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
We have allocated £45 million to neonatal capital funding projects over the next three years. This will fund nine schemes in five regions with a bespoke approach based on the value of the capital scheme. We are also allocating £50 million for staffing in the second half of 2022/23 and in 2023/24. Trusts were invited to develop plans to bid for resources for obstetric leadership capacity, bereavement midwives and maternity support workers, with other funding being allocated to projects such as return to midwifery programmes and international recruitment.
Operational Delivery Networks have worked with trusts to develop plans for the workforce in neonatal services. Allocations have been agreed and funding for 2022/23 will be released in November with further allocations in early 2023/24. The remaining funding has been used for other projects to improve the safety and personalisation of perinatal care. These include increasing funding to Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems, the establishment of the Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme and initiatives to improve staff retention in maternity services.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press notice by the NHS entitled NHS announces £127 million maternity boost for patients and families, published on 24 March 2022, how much and what proportion of the £34 million for (a) local maternity systems, (b) culture and leadership development programmes and (c) supporting staff retention roles has been released to each NHS trust as of 10 October 2022; what estimate she has made of when the remaining funds will be released; and what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the progress that has been made in distributing this funding.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
The £50 million funding will be allocated during an 18 month period from the second half of 2022/23 and in 2023/24. For maternity services, trusts were invited to develop plans and bid for funding for obstetric leadership capacity, bereavement midwives and maternity support workers, with other funding allocated to projects such as return to midwifery programmes and international recruitment. For the neonatal services, Operational Delivery Networks worked with trusts to develop plans for the workforce. Allocations have been agreed and funding for 2022/23 will be released in November, with further allocations in early 2023/24.
The direct allocation of funding for local maternity and neonatal systems was increased by £6.5 million following the announcement of this additional funding. Resources have also been provided for specific projects to improve local maternity care, such as enhanced continuity of carer providing targeted support for the most vulnerable groups of women.
The Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme has funding of £2.8 million and is on schedule to have engaged all maternity and neonatal services in England by March 2024. We have allocated £8.3 million for staff retention and trusts are using this funding to ensure that enhanced supernumerary support can be offered to newly qualified and returning midwives and pastoral support to the midwifery workforce.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press notice by the NHS entitled NHS announces £127 million maternity boost for patients and families, published on 24 March 2022, how much and what proportion of the £50 million to boost staffing numbers in maternity and neonatal services has been released to each NHS trust as of 10 October 2022; what estimate she has made of when the remaining funds will be released; and what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the progress that has been made in distributing this funding.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
The £50 million funding will be allocated during an 18 month period from the second half of 2022/23 and in 2023/24. For maternity services, trusts were invited to develop plans and bid for funding for obstetric leadership capacity, bereavement midwives and maternity support workers, with other funding allocated to projects such as return to midwifery programmes and international recruitment. For the neonatal services, Operational Delivery Networks worked with trusts to develop plans for the workforce. Allocations have been agreed and funding for 2022/23 will be released in November, with further allocations in early 2023/24.
The direct allocation of funding for local maternity and neonatal systems was increased by £6.5 million following the announcement of this additional funding. Resources have also been provided for specific projects to improve local maternity care, such as enhanced continuity of carer providing targeted support for the most vulnerable groups of women.
The Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme has funding of £2.8 million and is on schedule to have engaged all maternity and neonatal services in England by March 2024. We have allocated £8.3 million for staff retention and trusts are using this funding to ensure that enhanced supernumerary support can be offered to newly qualified and returning midwives and pastoral support to the midwifery workforce.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the NHS budget was spent on NHS maternity services in each year since 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is shown in the following table. This is taken from Reference Costs data to 2019/20, the most recent data available.
Financial year | Proportion of National Health Service budget |
2015/16 | 2.5% |
2016/17 | 2.6% |
2017/18 | 2.6% |
2018/19 | 2.5% |
2019/20 | 2.3% |