Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on implementing the recommendations of the report Reading the Signals: Maternity and Neonatal Services in East Kent since its publication.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following publication of Dr Bill Kirkup’s report, Reading the Signals: Maternity and Neonatal Services in East Kent, Dr Kirkup was appointed by the Department to develop concrete actions to implement the report’s recommendations. In this work, Dr Kirkup concluded that a national maternity plan was needed to oversee improvements in maternity and neonatal care.
The National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation, led by Baroness Amos, will also help us understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies, and families experience unacceptable care. The investigation is bringing together the findings from past reviews, including East Kent, from local investigations of maternity and neonatal services in selected trusts, and evidence from families and staff into one clear national set of recommendations.
The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce will address the investigation’s final recommendations, tackling the recurrent systemic issues identified in the interim report, and will hold the system to account for improving outcomes and experiences for women, babies, and families, and staff experiences.
One of the recommendations of the East Kent report was to introduce a Maternity Outcomes Signal System (MOSS), which was launched in November 2025. The system is now being used by maternity services across England. MOSS monitors outcomes in near-real time to identify potential declines in the safety of maternity services, prompting timely action to reduce harm.
Additionally, to improve representation of maternity services on trust boards, all boards are required to have a board level Maternity Safety Champion and quarterly reports to the board providing comprehensive assessment of maternity and neonatal quality and safety.
NHS England has developed a new, mandated, intensive improvement offer for the most challenged National Health Service providers, the National Provider Improvement Programme, which assesses trusts based on:
effective board and organisational leadership;
effective and insightful governance arrangements;
engaged staff; and
a shared approach to, and capability for, improvement.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on implementing the 15 Immediate and Essential Actions set out in the final report of the Ockenden Review into maternity services at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Ockenden review into maternity services at the Shrewsbury and Telford hospital trust identified 15 Immediate and Essential Actions. Following its publication, NHS England wrote to all trusts and systems asking them to deliver the actions and report to their public boards.
The Three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services, developed in partnership with families and key stakeholders and published in 2023, brought together the immediate and essential actions from the Ockenden review with those from other reports and guidance. The National Health Service operational planning guidance in 2025/26 set out the expectation that trusts should implement the key actions from the plan. In accordance with the NHS operating framework, it is for integrated care boards to oversee local progress. The technical guidance which accompanied the plan sets out how NHS England has monitored progress of the three-year delivery plan implementation at a national level.
The national independent investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal care, led by Baroness Amos, will also help us understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies, and families experience unacceptable care. The investigation is bringing together the findings from past reviews, from local investigations of maternity and neonatal services in selected trusts, and evidence from families and staff into one clear national set of recommendations.