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 ensure that maternity healthcare professionals receive training on (a) unconscious bias and (b) culturally competent care.

Taking action to tackle racism experienced by both staff and patients is essential to providing safe services for everyone. It is right that the National Health Service takes proactive steps to address prejudice and discrimination where it exists across the NHS workforce.

NHS England is ensuring maternity healthcare professionals receive training on unconscious bias and culturally competent care through the Core Competency Framework and the provision of the Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety in Maternity Services e-learning course. Equity-focused leadership development is being embedded through the national Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme.

In June 2023, NHS England published an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Improvement Plan, which sets out targeted actions to address prejudice and discrimination in the NHS workforce. The plan seeks to increase accountability for all leaders in delivering improvements, and to create an environment that eliminates the conditions in which bullying, discrimination, harassment, and physical violence at work occur.

For maternity services specifically, all local areas, including those in urban and rural areas, are required to equip staff to provide culturally competent care through their local Equity and Equality Actions plans, such as by providing appropriate training to staff for their local population.   NHS England is also developing a respectful and inclusive maternity care toolkit which aims to improve access, experiences, and outcomes for service users and to support staff to provide culturally sensitive care.