Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to implement the recommendations of Midwives 2020: Delivering Expectations, published in September 2010; and if he will make a statement.

My honourable friend will be pleased to note that we have also increased the number of midwives by over 1,700 or 8.6 % since May 2010 and we have made a commitment to ensure that the number of midwives in training is matched to the birth rate. This is now happening and there are over 6,000 more midwives in training to qualify over the next three years.

Midwifery 2020: Delivering Expectation was consulted and compiled upon during 2009 prior to its publication in 2010, by the then Chief Nursing Officers of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The report is regarded as guidance rather than as policy document.

Of greater relevance to policy is the document Midwifery Matters: Choice Access and Continuity of Care in a Safe Service first published in 2007 and reviewed again in 2011. This document has its origins with the National service framework: children, young people and maternity services (2004) and provides a continuum with regards to the key principles also outlined in the Midwifery 2020 document.

With the creation of the new National Health Service infrastructure, the NHS Mandate also outlines the central premise of choice and continuity of care and further underlines the requirement for women-centred care with the reference to personalised maternity services.

The Mandate between the Government and NHS England states that every woman should have a named midwife who is responsible for ensuring she has personalised, one-to-one care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and during the postnatal period.

NHS England is delivering this objective as part of its business priorities for 2014/15. All women will have access to a named midwife by March 2015.

NHS England has also introduced the Friend and Family Test across maternity services. This together with the NHS Outcomes Framework quality measures for maternity will drive quality improvement to better meet the needs of women.

The Department and NHS England are also making good progress in implementing the 6 core values, known as the 6Cs, in the Compassion in Practice nursing and midwifery strategy, published in December 2012. The majority of trusts have adopted the 6Cs as part of their nursing and midwifery strategies.

Health Education England is leading the Personalised Maternity Care Project which is exploring how achievable the Midwifery 2020 vision is - both in the short term and by 2022. It triangulates the views of commissioners, service providers, the universities providing midwifery education, lay and user groups. Other professions working in maternity care have also contributed to this scoping project. Health Education England will publish the report later this autumn.

These initiatives are making good progress in achieving the principles of the Midwifery 2020 report, in England.