Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the findings of the recent Royal College of Midwives report, Postnatal Care Planning; and what steps he is taking to address shortages of midwives and ensure that the care received is based on clinical need of the mother.

All women should receive excellent maternity care that focuses on the best outcomes for them and their babies. We are committed to improving choice of place of birth, continuity of care and women’s experience of care. To assist, the Department asked the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to develop a quality standard for postnatal care, which was published in July 2013.

To help achieve this, the Government is committed to increasing the number of midwives. The most recent data, October 2013, shows that the number of midwives has increased at twice the rate of the number of births, by more than 6%, since May 2010. The latest figures (21 August) show that there are currently 21,870 midwives, 1,738 more than in May 2010. Additionally, there are over 6,000 more midwives in training.

We have committed to maintaining current training numbers for 2014-15 and 2015-16. We have also set out clear objectives for NHS England and for Health Education England in our mandates to them to ensure that the maternity workforce has the right knowledge and training to look after women’s health according to the best clinical practice.

In addition, every woman is able to give feedback on the quality of the maternity care they receive through the Friends and Family Test, and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) conducted a survey of women’s experience of maternity services, including postnatal care, in October last year. Providers and commissioners of maternity services will wish to use the results from the Friends and Family Test and the CQC survey to identify areas where further action is needed to improve services.